Últimas notícias: Presidente da NASA pede para que se avalie a possibilidade de operar o Shuttle até 2015!

A NASA está a aproximar-se de uma situação crítica para o período entre 2010 e 2015. Está neste momento previsto que o Shuttle deixe de operar em 2010, e que o seu sucessor, a Orion, só entre em funcionamento em 2015 - se tudo correr bem, o que não está a acontecer. Durante esse período, os EUA dependerão totalmente da Rússia para colocar astronautas a bordo da Estação Espacial Internacional!

Com o azedar das relações entre os EUA e a Rússia, decorrente da recente guerra na Geórgia, é bem possível que os EUA se vejam afastados da ISS durante, pelo menos, esses 5 anos! E não nos esqueçamos que a ISS foi, em grande parte, construída pelos EUA!

Assim, e contrariando as afirmações recentes de Wayne Hale (ver último post), o presidente da NASA Michael Griffin veio agora pedir que se estude a viabilidade de manter o Space Shuttle em operações durante esse período de 5 anos.

Pessoalmente considero esta uma notícia de enorme importância, e extremamente positiva. Espero que dê tempo à NASA para reavaliar (cancelar?) o desastroso projecto Orion, e lhe permita criar um novo sistema de acesso ao Espaço que seja realmente inovador e económico.

Fonte: Orlando Sentinel


EXCLUSIVE: NASA to study extending shuttle era to 2015
posted by Mark Matthews on Aug 29, 2008 12:12:22 PM

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has ordered his subordinates to study how the agency could fly the space shuttle beyond its planned retirement in 2010, according to an internal e-mail obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

The decision signals what could be a huge change in NASA policy. Griffin repeatedly has rejected the notion of extending the shuttle era beyond its 2010 retirement date, arguing it could cripple the fledgling Constellation program, a system of new rockets and capsules meant to replace the shuttle in 2015.

But Griffin has been under enormous external pressure. Sen. John McCain recently asked the White House to stop dismantling parts of the shuttle program for at least a year. At the same time, eroding relations with Russia have motivated lawmakers to find a way to fill the five-year gap between the shuttle's retirement and the maiden voyage of Constellation in 2015. The current plan calls for NASA to buy Russian spacecraft during the gap.

One NASA official said such "what-if studies" represent "prudent planning," especially in light of suggestions made by McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who would dictate the agency's future if he captures the White House.

But the email, sent on Wednesday, August 27, by John Coggeshall, manager of "Manifest and Schedules" at Johnson Space Center in Houston, suggested that the analysis was more than just a contingency study.

"We want to focus on helping bridge the gap of US vehicles travelling to the ISS as efficiently as possible," it said.

The upcoming study raised the idea of retiring one of the three remaining orbiters, possibly for spare parts. "(We) don't necessarily need all 3 orbiters either," said the email. "We have been encouraged not to focus on a certain set of assumptions or costs," said the email.

But cost has been the exact reason why Griffin has dismissed the idea of extending the shuttle era. To have enough money to build Constellation's Ares 1 rocket and Orion crew capsule, NASA must spending stop money on shuttle flights. At one point last year, he estimated that it would cost as much as $4 billion a year to fly the shuttle beyond 2010.

NASA' current budget is about $17 billion.

"Continuing to fly the Shuttle beyond 2010 does not enhance U.S. human spaceflight capability, but rather delays the time until a new capability exists and increases the total life cycle cost to bring the new capability on line," he told Congress in November.

Another worry: NASA already has begun unplugging parts of the shuttle system. It has already terminated many contracts with vendors who make shuttle parts and NASA facilities already have begun converting its systems to handle the new Constellation program.

Wayne Hale, a NASA deputy assistant administrator and until recently the shuttle-program manager, has said that this fall marks the point of no return. That's when NASA is supposed to start ripping out the giant welding equipment and other machinery at Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which makes the shuttle's giant external fuel tank.

In a blog posted Thursday, Hale said that flying shuttle and building Constellation would strain NASA's budgets and overextend its workforce. "Hey, I am the biggest shuttle hugger there is. I think it is the best spacecraft ever built. But I also deal in the real world," he wrote.

"Where does the money come from? Where do the people -- who should be working on the moon rocket -- where do they come from? We started shutting down the shuttle four years ago. That horse has left the barn," he wrote.


Email referido no artigo acima:

From: Coggeshall, John C. (JSC-MA)
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 4:23 PM
To: Larochelle, Joseph K. (JSC-OM); Fuller, Sean M. (JSC-OC); Gensler, Janejit T. (JSC-OM3); Feldman, Holly (JSC-OM); Overton, Thomas L. (KSC); Ford, Clark D. (KSC); Magendie, Brian (MAF-NASA_MAF)[Lockheed Martin Space Systems Com; Dwyer, Kenneth J. (JSC-MV6); Jackson, Melodie M. (KSC); 'Lemoine, Patrick K. (KSC)[USA]'; Davidson, Dennis R. (JSC-MM)

Cc: Lyons, Douglass E. (KSC); Phillips, Pepper (KSC); Wyche, Vanessa E. (JSC-ZD); Castle, Robert E. (JSC-ZD); Beck, Kelly B. (JSC-DA); Rasco, Dorothy S. (JSC-MM)

Subject: Shuttle extension assessment

The SSP program in conjunction with Cx and ISS have been asked by the administrator to put together some manifest options to assess extending shuttle flights to 2015. SSP would like to have some options developed for review by senior management by the end of September. The result of the review might be a formal budget assessment of a option(s).

We will start by using the manifest team to put together a option(s). I would like to start getting some initial thoughts next week. What I want to do is focus in on initially is what would make sense given the current conditions with ISS and Cx. We have been encouraged not to focus on a certain set of assumptions or costs. We will probably develop multiple options. In my initial discussions with John these are the things I would like to think about

- We cant just spread out the 10 flights to 2015, that does not support ISS requirements
- We will need some new ETs and that’s the long lead item so we may need a little "streching".
- We will have to put orbiters in OMDP
- We don’t want to get in the way of Cx development by holding on to facilities they need (HB3, MLP, Pad , Crawler, Engine Test stands etc)

- Flight rate is not given
- Don’t necessarily need all 3 orbiters either

We want to focus on helping bridge the gap of US vehicles traveling to the ISS as efficiently as possible.

Joe LaRochelle will have some preliminary ISS requirements for us next week, and Ken is going to work on OMDP thoughts.

Thanks, and this should actually be fun. Well as fun as anything gets if you’re a manifest dweeb.

John Coggeshall
JSC-MA / Manifest and Schedules

Wayne Hale: o programa Shuttle está a ser desmantelado há 4 anos!

Uma grande alhada que se aproxima para a NASA e para os Estados Unidos. Há já alguns anos que a NASA se prepara para terminar o programa Space Shuttle em 2010, o que irá deixar os Estados Unidos dependentes da Rússia para colocar astronautas na Estação Espacial Internacional até que, por voltas de 2015, as cápsulas Orion estejam prontas a voar.

A alhada vem do seguinte: o desenvolvimento das Orion tem deparado com inúmeros problemas, que tem gradualmente levado o programa a reduzir a importância dos seus objectivos e a adiar a data provável da sua entrada em funcionamento.

Por outro lado, o agravamento das tensões entre o Ocidente e a Rússia vem pôr em dúvida a possibilidade dos EUA usarem as cápsulas russas Soyuz para levarem astronautas americanos até à ISS!

Ou seja, podemos vir a deparar com a situação caricata dos Estados Unidos estarem impossibilitados de tripular com astronautas americanos a Estação Espacial que eles próprios construiram!!!

Esta situação tem levado os actuais candidatos à Casa Branca a propôr o prolongamento das missões do Space Shuttle por mais um ou dois anos, por forma a minimizar este lapso de tempo.

Agora Wayne Hale, Director do Programa Space Shuttle, vem dizer que tal será impossível, ou pelo menos extremamente caro. Um reality check doloroso para a NASA! Leiam e chorem.

Fonte: Space Review


Shutting down the shuttle

I believe it was General Norman Schwartzkopf who said: "Arm chair generals study tactics; real generals study logistics".

One of the first lessons I learned in program and project management is that attention to the details of supplies, vendors, and parts manufacturers will determine success or failure more than anything else that management does. They are not glamorous, Hollywood does not make movies made about them, but logistics and supply chain are the unsung pillars on which every major project rests.

It is nice to have eloquent oratory and high flown philosophical statements, but the real way that real programs are really controlled is through the money. When the logistics and supply budget is stopped, the program is over. Momentum and warehoused supplies can carry on for a short period, but when those are exhausted, its time for the museum.

Starting four years ago, the shuttle program in its various projects made "lifetime buys". That is, we bought enough piece parts to fly all the flights on the manifest plus a prudent margin of reserves. Then we started sending out termination letters. About two years ago, we terminated 95% of the vendors for parts for the external tank project, for example. Smaller, but still significant, percentages of vendors for SSME, Orbiter, and RSRB have also been terminated.

A lot of things that go into the shuttle build up are specialty items. Electronics parts that nobody makes any more (1970's vintage stuff). Hey, if it works, why invest money in certifying new parts? Certifying new ones would be even more costly! Specialty alloys to meet the extraordinary demands of space flight, parts that are made by Mom and Pop shops mostly in the LA basin are norm rather than the exception. You might think that simple things like bolts and screws, wire, filters, and gaskets could be bought off the shelf some where, but that thinking would merely prove how little you know about the shuttle. The huge majority of supplies, consumable items, maintenance items, they are all specially made with unique and stringent processes and standards.

Our shuttle history tells us that when we try to cut corners, trouble results. Small, even apparently insignificant changes have caused big problems. For example, the unheralded end of production of a solvent caused enormous complications for the SRB folks a few years back when things started falling apart unexpectedly. It took a huge engineering detective effort to determine that small chemical changes in the new solvent were the culprit. Anything coming apart in the SRB is not good. There are hundreds of similar examples.

There is a long and arduous process to certify a vendor to produce the logistical parts for the shuttle. Not many companies do this work. Almost all of them are extraordinarily proud of the role they play in America's space program. A lot of them have been there from the beginnings in the middle 1970s. So when a Mom and Pop specialty shop gets a termination letter from the shuttle program after 35 years of production and they have other customers, guess what happens? Mom and Pop decide to close the shop, pension off their highly skilled workers, and then Mom and Pop move out of LA to their retirement cottage in the mountains or at the sea shore.

A lot of this has been happening over the last four years; most of it over two years ago.

So, just for the sake of argument, lets see what would happen if somehow we decided to fly the shuttle some more flights?

From time to time a vendor of specialty parts for the shuttle has gone out of business. Our experience then is that we have immense problems getting anybody to even bid on making replacement items. Sometimes, with hat in hand, we have to knock on doors. Always, we have to offer premium payments to get those exotic, small production run parts made.

Given time and money, anything is possible. But we are always short on time and money. Life seems to be like that.

To take one little example: if we started today to build another external tank at MAF, there are probably enough parts on the shelf. But very shortly we would exhaust supplies of some parts. Maybe on the second tank -- which we need to start in 3 months or so -- would have to get a new supply of specialty parts. Sometimes the old vendor is still there and could be persuaded to make more of the old parts. But in many cases, a new vendor would have to be found. Since the production run would be small, a premium price would have to be paid; and a certification effort requiring 6 to 12 months would start. Initial production likely would have a number of rejects as the workers learn the process. Hmm. In probably 15 to 18 months would would have the parts to build that second tank -- only a year or so later than we needed them. So a new gap would form. Not between shuttle and orion but between shuttle and shuttle.

And what would we get: even higher price per flight of an old technology which is not nearly as safe as we would like . . .

Hey, I am the biggest shuttle hugger there is. I think it is the best spacecraft ever built. But I also deal in the real world.

Where does the money come from? Where do the people -- who should be working on the moon rocket -- where do they come from?

We started shutting down the shuttle four years ago. That horse has left the barn.

Barack Obama promete apoiar o programa espacial da NASA

Entre outras promessas, Obama admite que haja mais uma missão do Space Shuttle, por forma a diminuir o espaço de tempo entre a última missão do Shuttle e a primeira do Projecto Orion.

Mmmm, ver para crer. No seu projecto de campanha, Obama já referiu fazer cortes no orçamento da NASA para aumentar as despesas com a educação. Embora concorde que nos EUA se deva gastar mais - e melhor - em educação, acho pessoalmente que os EUA não devam fazê-lo sacrificando precisamente o organismo que faz a ciência e a investigação andar para a frente - a NASA.

Leiam os dois artigos abaixo.

Fontes:

• Email da CBS Space News
• Space Politics

Obama vows support for NASA, additional shuttle flight
CBS Space News
Posted: 2:15 PM, 8/2/08
By William Harwood
CBS News Space Consultant

2:15 PM, 8/2/08, Update: Obama vows to support NASA; supports additional shuttle flight; will work to 'close the gap' between shuttle and its replacement

Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president, held a town hall meeting near the Kennedy Space Center today and vowed strong support for NASA, saying he favors at least one shuttle flight beyond the 10 missions left on the agency's manifest. Obama also said he would work to close the gap between the end of shuttle operations in 2010 and the debut of the Orion spacecraft that will replace it and said earlier reports that he would divert money from NASA's next manned spacecraft to education were unfounded.

Obama was introduced to an enthusiastic crowd of about 1,300 at the Brevard Community College by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), who flew as a payload specialist aboard the shuttle Columbia in 1986. In his opening remarks, Obama delivered his most detailed statement yet on space policy as NASA implements the Bush administration's drive to complete the space station and retire the shuttle fleet by the end of fiscal 2010.

NASA hopes to replace the shuttle with smaller Orion capsules and huge, unmanned cargo boosters, known collectively as the Constellation program. The goal is to use Orion spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the station while developing the heavy-lift Ares 5 rocket that will help NASA establish a moon base around 2020.

Under the Bush administration's plan, the money to pay for the Constellation program primarily will come from funds that now go to the shuttle and space station programs. The Orion spacecraft and its Ares 1 booster are under development, but near-term funding shortfalls will result in a four- to five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations and the advent of routine operations with Orion. During that gap, U.S. astronauts will be forced to hitch rides to the station aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

It has been widely reported in space circles that Obama earlier vowed to reduce spending for the Constellation program in favor of education initiatives. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, said in a statement last week marking NASA's 50th anniversary that "under current plans, the United States will retire the space shuttle in 2010 after its final mission to the international space station, and thus lose the capability to send on our own, an American to space."

"While my opponent seems content to retreating from American exploration of space for a decade, I am not," McCain said in the statement. "As president, I will act to make ensure our astronauts will continue to explore space, and not just by hitching a ride with someone else. I intend to make sure that the NASA Constellation program has the resources it needs so that we can begin a new era of human space exploration. A country that sent a man to the moon should expect no less."

Today, Obama said he supports the Constellation program and will work to narrow the gap between the end of shuttle operations and the advent of Orion.

"I know it's still being reported that we were talking about delaying some aspects of the Constellation program to pay for our early education program," he said. "I told my staff we're going to find an entirely different offset because we've got to make sure that the money that's going into NASA for basic research and development continues to go there. That has been a top priority for us. This is an administration that's been anti-science. Whether it's on stem cell research, whether it's on climate change, they have rejected science. I want to reverse that trend, I want us to be a science-based society and I want us to invest in science."

Obama expanded on that theme in his opening remarks today, saying "we've got to rebuild our economy in a much more fundamental way. We've got to secure our long-term prosperity and strengthen our economy for the 21st century."

"One of the areas where we're in danger of losing our competitive edge is in science and technology and nothing symbolizes that more than our space program," Obama said. "I've written about this in my book, I grew up in Hawaii and I still remember sitting on my grandfather's shoulders as some of the astronauts were brought in after their capsules had landed in the middle of the Pacific. I could just barely see them, I was waving, I had an American flag, and I remember my grandfather explaining to me this is what America's all about, we can do anything when we put our mind to it.

"And that was what the space program described, that sense of possibility and always reaching out to new frontiers. When I was growing up, NASA inspired the world with achievements that we're still proud of. And today we have an administration that sets ambitious goals for NASA without giving NASA the support it needs to reach them. As a result, NASA's had to cut back on research, trim their program, which means that after the space shuttle shuts down in 2010 we're going to have to rely on Russian spacecraft to keep us in orbit.

"So let me be clear," he said. "We cannot cede our leadership in space. That's why I'm going to close the gap, ensure that our space program doesn't suffer when the shuttle goes out of service. We may extend an additional shuttle launch, we're going to work with Bill Nelson to add at least one more flight beyond 2010 by continuing to support NASA funding, by speeding the development of the shuttle's successor, by making sure that all those that work in the space industry in Florida do not lose their jobs when the shuttle is retired. Because we cannot afford to lose their expertise."

The additional shuttle flight presumably would be devoted to launching the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, a major physics experiment that lost its ride to the space station in the push to finish the station and retire the shuttle by the end of fiscal 2010. Nelson and other NASA supporters in Congress favor the additional flight, but the Bush administration opposes the additional expense.

"But more broadly, we need a real vision for the next stage of space exploration," Obama continued. "And to help formulate this vision, I'm going to re-establish the national aeronautics and space council so we can develop a plan to explore the solar system, a plan that involves both human and robotic missions, enlist both international partners and the private sector. And as America leads the world in the long-term exploration of the moon and Mars and beyond, let's also tap NASA's ingenuity to build the airplanes of tomorrow and to study our own planet so we can combat global climate change.

"Under my watch, NASA will inspire the world once again and make America stronger and it's going to help grow the economy right here in Brevard County and right here in Florida. That's what we're going to do. That's what this election's all about. It's about raising our sights, seizing the moment, reclaiming our destiny."



Obama: cut Constellation to pay for education
November 20, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released today the education plan he would enact if elected. The full 15-page plan includes a variety of proposals, including reforming early education programs. The last section of the plan, titled “A Commitment to Fiscal Responsibility” explains how he would pay for these initiatives. The passage of relevance here: “The early education plan will be paid for by delaying the NASA Constellation Program for five years,” among other steps. According to MSNBC, Obama would leave in place $500 million/year for Constellation’s “manufacturing and technology base”, but would otherwise transfer the funding to the education effort. None of the campaign’s official statements or other media reports indicate any alternative measures the campaign would take to address what, on its face, would appear to be a five-year delay in the introduction of Ares 1, Orion, and the other main components of NASA’s current exploration architecture.

(A potentially ironic item, depending on your opinion on the importance of Constellation: one other section of the Obama education plan is titled “Make Math and Science Education a National Priority”.)

The Republican National Committee has criticized the move to delay Constellation, The Hill reports, quoting RNC spokesman Danny Diaz: “It is ironic that Barack Obama’s plan to help our children reach for the stars is financed in part by slashing a program that helps us learn about those very same stars.”

Aterragem da Phoenix em Marte dentro de poucas horas

A transmissão em directo pela NASA TV começa hoje pelas 11 horas da noite, hora de Lisboa. A aterragem deverá ser por volta da meia-noite e 53 minutos. As primeiras imagens poderão surgir por volta das 3 da madrugada. Vamos manter os dedos cruzados e esperar que tudo corra bem. Se tal acontecer, será a primeira vez em 32 anos que a NASA consegue aterrar uma sonda em Marte só com controlo por foguetes e sem o auxílio de airbags!

Fonte: NASA

Nota - a todos os tempos abaixo deverá somar 8 horas, já que são a hora oficial da costa oeste.

NOTE: The times below for the Phoenix spacecraft events on May 25 are for a nominal scenario. Remaining navigational adjustments before May 25 could shift the times by up to about half a minute. In addition, the times for some events relative to others could vary by several seconds due to variations in the Martian atmosphere and other factors. For some events, a "give or take" range of times is given, covering 99 percent of possible scenarios from the atmospheric entry time. For events at Mars, times are listed in "Earth-receive time" (ERT) rather than "spacecraft event time" (SCET). This means the listed time incorporates the interval necessary for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach Earth from Mars. On landing day, May 25, the two planets are 275 million kilometers apart (171 million miles), which means it takes the signal 15 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth. For some spacecraft events, engineers will not receive immediate radio confirmation.

-- Trajectory correction maneuver opportunity (TCM6X), 8:46 a.m.
-- News briefing, noon
-- Begin non-commentary live television feed from JPL control room, 3 p.m.
-- Begin commentated live television feed from JPL control room, 3:30 p.m.
-- Propulsion system pressurization, 4:16 p.m.
-- Begin "bent-pipe" relay relay (continuous transmission of Phoenix data as it is received) through NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft to Goldstone, Calif., Deep Space Network station, 4:38 p.m.
-- Green Bank, W. Va., radio telescope listening for direct UHF from Phoenix, 4:38 p.m.
-- Cruise stage separates, 4:39 p.m.
-- Spacecraft turns to attitude for atmospheric entry, 4:40 p.m.
-- Spacecraft enters atmosphere, 4:46:33 p.m.
-- Likely blackout period as hot plasma surrounds spacecraft, 4:47 through 4:49 p.m.
-- Parachute deploys, 4:50:15 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Heat shield jettisoned, 4:50:30 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds.
-- Legs deploy, 4:50:40 p.m., plus or minus about 13 seconds. -
- Radar activated, 4:51:30 p.m.
-- Lander separates from backshell, 4:53:09 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Transmission gap during switch to helix antenna 4:53:08 to 4:53:14 p.m.
-- Descent thrusters throttle up, 4:53:12 p.m.
-- Constant-velocity phase starts, 4:53:34 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Touchdown, 4:53:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Lander radio off 4:54:52 p.m., plus or minus about 46 seconds.
-- Begin opening solar arrays (during radio silence) 5:13 p.m.
-- Begin NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:28 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Begin Europe's Mars Express spacecraft playback of Phoenix transmissions recorded during entry, descent and landing, 5:30 p.m. However, data for analysis will not be ready until several hours later.
-- Post-landing poll of subsystem teams about spacecraft status, 5:30 p.m.
-- Mars Odyssey "bent-pipe" relay of transmission from Phoenix, with engineering data and possibly including first images, 6:43 to 7:02 p.m. Data could take up to about 30 additional minutes in pipeline before being accessible. If all goes well, live television feed from control room may show first images as they are received. The first images to be taken after landing will be of solar arrays, to check deployment status.
-- News briefing, 9 p.m.


Fonte: New Scientist Space


Peanuts and Rolling Stones on hand for Mars landing

* 00:34 25 May 2008
* NewScientist.com news service
* Ivan Semeniuk, Pasadena

Bring on the peanuts; it's time to land on Mars.

One day before the Phoenix spacecraft arrives at the Red Planet, good luck charms and helpful aphorisms are on full display as engineers and scientists associated with the project deal with the stress of their mission's most critical hours.

Project manager Barry Goldstein has already ordered the peanuts that will be available tomorrow in the mission support area where his Entry, Descent and Landing team will track Phoenix's fiery plunge through the Martian atmosphere.

The peanuts are a Jet Propulsion Lab tradition, but unlike at the last Mars landing, these peanuts will still be in their shells. "I think we need to go through the process" of opening up the peanuts to calm edgy nerves, he told New Scientist.

In addition to the peanuts, lucky blueberries will also make an appearance - a nod to the Opportunity rover, which found iron-rich spherules, nicknamed blueberries, soon after it became the last spacecraft to successfully touch down on Mars.

If it lands successfully, Phoenix will dig into the soil near the northern polar cap to study ice thought to lie just below the surface. This should reveal whether Mars has maintained periodic habitability up to the present day, which would be possible if the planet periodically changes its tilt as a result of gravitational tugs by Jupiter. Such wobbles would cause the northern permafrost to melt and moisten the soil every so often.

At a press briefing today, principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, quoted poet Ralph Waldo Emerson while summing up the scientific rationale for the mission, which could be the first to touch water on Mars: "Go where there is no path; leave a trail for others to follow."

On a somewhat less poetic, but eminently more pragmatic note, Douglas McCuistion, NASA's Mars programme director, invoked a line famously sung by Mick Jagger: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you get what you need."
Course correction

Certainly, regardless of the returns that scientists want to see coming back from Phoenix in the coming weeks, the spacecraft needs to land intact or the $420 million mission will effectively be a write-off. "We bet the whole farm on landing safely," says Smith.

Later today, Goldstein and his team will decide if a course correction is needed to nudge the lander's trajectory towards a destination that is roughly 10 kilometres or so eastward of its latest projected landing site. The correction would require the spacecraft to turn itself sideways and then fire its hydrazine propellant for six seconds before resuming to its Mars-facing orientation.

According to mission manager Joe Guinn, the manoeuvre would only be executed if Phoenix appears to be drifting away from a region of the Martian northern plains that has the most desirable landing profile.

The desirable region falls in a topographic "green zone" - so-called because of its colour code in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) images. The green zone is defined as having no more than three large boulders (1.5 metres across) per hectare.
Dust storm

In addition to the surface terrain, Phoenix's landing could also be affected by atmospheric conditions. MRO images reveal that a minor dust storm swept across the landing site earlier today, but the disturbance is expected to dissipate well before the probe's touchdown at 1653 PDT on Sunday (0053 GMT on Monday).

While Phoenix can accommodate a high-speed entry through a dusty atmosphere, a large amount of dust over the landing site would mean a reduction in the power available to spacecraft on the surface once its solar panels are deployed.

Goldstein said that a data set with updated information on atmospheric conditions can be sent to the spacecraft up to 3 hours before the landing. Such information will be crucial for determining when key events of the landing sequence take place, including deployment of the parachute that will slow the spacecraft to a point where its pulsing thrusters can take over for a soft landing.

As formigas assassinas (de computadores) de Houston

Uma praga de formigas está a dirigir-se para a zona de Houston, onde está localizado o centro de controlo de todas as missões tripuladas da NASA. Estas formigas têm a particularidade de 'gostarem' particularmente de computadores, alojando-se às centenas no seu interior, e causando sobreaquecimentos e curto-circuitos. Poderá estar a desenvolver-se um problema grave para a NASA!

Fonte: ComputerWorld


NASA moves to save computers from swarming ants
Sharon Gaudin

May 15, 2008 (Computerworld) A flood of voracious ants is heading straight for Houston, taking out computers, radios and even vehicles in their path.

Even the Johnson Space Center has called in extermination experts to keep the pests out of their sensitive and critical systems.

The ants have been causing all kinds of trouble in five Texas counties in the Gulf Coast area. Because of their sheer numbers, the ants are short-circuiting computers in homes and offices, and knocking systems offline in major businesses. When IT personnel pry the affected computers open, they find the machines loaded with thousands of ant bodies.

"These ants are raising havoc," said Roger Gold, professor of entomology at Texas A&M University in College Station. "They're foraging for food, and they'll go into any space looking for it. In the process, they make their way into sensitive equipment."

The ants have been dubbed Crazy Rasberry ants after Tom Rasberry, owner of Budget Pest Control in Pearland, Texas. He first tackled this particular type of ant back in 2002. Since then, the problem has only escalated.

Rasberry told Computerworld that the ants have caused a lot of trouble for one Texas chemical company in particular. Not wanting to name the company, he said the ants shorted out three computers that were running a pipeline that brought chemicals into the plant. The ants took down two computers last year and one in 2006, affecting flow in the pipeline each time.

"I think they go into everything, and they don't follow any kind of structured line," said Rasberry. "If you open a computer, you would find a cluster of ants on the motherboard and all over. You'd get 3,000 or 4,000 ants inside, and they create arcs. They'll wipe out any computer."

The Johnson Space Center called in Rasberry a month or two ago in an attempt to keep the ants out of its facilities. Too late. Raspberry said he found three colonies at the NASA site, but all were small enough to control.

"With the computer systems they have in there, it could devastate the facility," said Rasberry. "If these ants got into the facility in the numbers they have in other locations, well, it would be awful. I've been in this business for 32 years, and this is unlike anything I've ever seen. Anything. When you bring in entomologists from all over the U.S. and they're in shock and awe, that shows you what it's like."

The Johnson Space Center referred all questions about the ants to Rasberry.

The ants, which are tiny and reddish, aren't native to Texas. Officials believe they came off a ship from the Caribbean, said Paul Nester, a program specialist for the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. They were first spotted about six years ago.

Gold said in the past few years, they've spread in a radius of about 50 miles. And now they're moving into Houston, the fourth largest city in the country.

"Fifty miles might not seem like a lot until you realize they're moving into Houston," said Gold. "It could really affect a lot of people's lives."

A big problem, noted Nester, is how quickly their numbers are multiplying.

A queen fire ant, long a problem in Texas, can lay as many as 1,000 eggs a day, he said. The Crazy Rasberry ants are thought to be as prolific. However, an ant mound normally has one queen. The new ants have many queens, so they're able to multiply their ranks that much more quickly. They also don't go to the trouble of building ant hills. They simply nest under anything they can find — a log, a tire or a pet's water bowl — and then they quickly move on and spread further.

Nester said the ants swarmed into trucks at a shipping company, shorting out the radios and even some of the vehicles themselves.

Gold said the ants got into an engine compartment at a sewage treatment plant and shorted out the pumps so they couldn't move the sewage out. He added that they've also overrun a subdivision and caused a lot of electrical damage to houses there.

Part of the problem is that exterminators have found it nearly impossible to kill the ants. Oh, you can kill some of them — the first wave, maybe. However, there are so many more ants coming behind them, that the first wave falls dead in the insecticide and the subsequent waves merely walk on the dead bodies, keeping themselves out of the poison and safe from harm.

Gold warned people not to spray any pesticides inside their computers, but to simply call in professionals to avoid mixing up poisonous concoctions or storing partly used, potentially harmful insecticides.

Voltaremos à Lua em 2020?

Conto-me entre os que duvidam. E estou em boa companhia, entre outros os astronautas Eugene Cernan e Alan Bean, que andaram na Lua em 1972 e 1969, respectivamente, que realçam o facto de que a NASA foi colocada numa situação impossível pelo presidente Bush quando, há anos, ditou o regresso à Lua até 2020 com um novo tipo de nave espacial, e o fim dos vôos do Space Shuttle em 2010, sem qualquer acréscimo orçamental. A NASA não podia dizer que não, por isso tem estado a gastar dinheiro a desenvolver um novo sistema de foguetões, até que o dinheiro se acabe...

Esta situação já foi vista vezes sem conta. Na NASA, como em qualquer outra agência estatal de qualquer país, os orçamentos são para gastar. Se por algum milagre do destino se atinge um objectivo, é motivo para júbilo, mas isso, geralmente, não é esperado. Só quando há um grande ímpeto por parte do Governo em que esse determinado objectivo seja realmente atingido é que se veêm resultados. Foi o que se viu no final da década de 60 com o Projecto Apollo. Pelo contrário, a Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS) foi, durante décadas, apenas um projecto que sugou biliões de dólares do orçamento da NASA, porque não havia realmente a vontade política de a colocar em órbita. Só quando esse objectivo foi realmente firmado a nível do Governo dos EUA, através de múltiplos acordos com outros países, nomeadamente a Europa e o Japão, é que se começou a ver a construção da ISS a andar para a frente. Com grandes problemas pelo meio, é certo, entre os quais a tragédia do Columbia, e a mais de 10 vezes o custo inicial estimado, de acordo com alguns estudos. Mas hoje assistimos a um esforço espetacular de construír uma estação espacial útil e funcional, o que não aconteceu durante anos.

Como não é óbvia a vontade de voltar à Lua por parte do Governo dos EUA, e como o orçamento da NASA é claramente insuficiente para fazer 'a festa', muitos duvidam que em 2020 lá estejamos de novo.

Fonte: TIME


Can We Return Man to the Moon?
By Dan Cray

Once you've used the moon as your trampoline, you spend the rest of your life waiting for a second turn on the ride. It's no surprise, then, that Gene Cernan and Alan Bean, two Apollo-era astronauts who have bounded on the lunar surface, are thrilled with NASA's plans to return Americans the moon. Thrilled, but not entirely convinced it will ever happen. "To be honest with you," says Cernan, the last man to leave the moon in December 1972, "I'll be surprised if this happens [by] 2020."

Why the doubt? Motivation and money, say Bean and Cernan. Without the pressure of imminent international challenge, the astronauts say, the Constellation program — NASA's next manned mission to the moon in 2020 — will lag. "We need some kind of stimulus, a commercial or international challenge to our standing in the free world," says Cernan, 74. "And it isn't out there." That's a potentially make-or-break difference from the ambitious, Cold War–fueled days of Apollo. It's unlikely, then, that any future President will make manned lunar exploration a real priority. Which means inadequate funding for NASA and a tough bind for the agency's administrator, Michael Griffin. "If the President says you're going to the moon with this amount of money," says Bean, now 76 and an artist in Houston, "you'd better say yes, because if you don't you aren't going to have a job anymore." In effect, he says, the space agency must go through the motions of building hardware until the money runs out, knowing it won't be enough to make it to the moon.

"I see the same glint in [NASA's] eyes, the same good things that we had going for us," says Bean, who piloted Apollo 12's lunar module, "except I don't see the money that it's going to take to do the job."

Another surprising obstacle to returning man to the moon: NASA's space shuttle, a technological marvel that did little more than turn us back into Earth-orbit-bound homebodies. "We went all the way to the moon, then they closed the garage door," says Cernan. That near-sighted mindset may have carried over to Constellation, where engineers are focusing as much on developing two rockets — the Ares V cargo rocket (think Apollo's Saturn V on steroids) and the slender Ares 1 crew launcher — as on the vehicles and habitats needed for the lunar surface. NASA says Ares adapts technologies from the Space Shuttle and Saturn programs, but the astronauts wonder why we're reinventing rockets. As Cernan says, "The enemy of good is better. We don't need to make the trip fancy, let's just get there." Bean agrees. While helping to evaluate new lunar tools at Johnson Space Center, he says, "I told them we already have a hammer than can break rocks. Get that money where you're trying to solve new problems." The advice, he says, "didn't really set in."

Technology is only a boon to the extent that humans stay in control of it. What ruffles Cernan, a former Navy pilot who still flies Lear jets, is that Constellation is heading toward technology overload; engineers have already joked that the program's astronauts won't have to do much besides enjoy the ride. "If we take the human capability out of the system we're going to fail," says Cernan, suggesting the Soviets learned that the hard way when they designed automated, ground-controlled spacecraft that failed. "Technology is an aid, not a crutch." Bean is more bullish than his colleague on Constellation's possible new designs, but agrees that human control is crucial to spaceflight, particularly since a lightning strike took his Apollo 12 instruments off-line right after launch, leaving him to to regain control manually.

Despite a deep-seated skepticism, both men still consider themselves two of NASA's greatest cheerleaders. They say the agency has at least reoriented itself in the right direction — away from Earth — after too many homebound years. "I wouldn't go up on the space station for anything in the world," Cernan says. "Once you've been to the moon, staying home isn't good enough."

NASA preocupada por depender dos russos entre 2010 e 2015.

Uma situação complicada e embaraçosa.

Em 2010 deverá estar concluída a construção da Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS), e serão retirados de serviço os Space Shuttle. Os seus sucessores, as cápsulas Orion, só deverão estar operacionais por volta de 2015. Durante esses 5 anos, a única possibilidade que a NASA terá de colocar astronautas na ISS será pagando aos Russos, que serão os únicos em todo o Mundo com a capacidade de colocar pessoas em órbita! Num momento em que as relações diplomáticas entre os EUA e a Rússia se estão a tornar mais tensas, esta situação é tudo menos ideal. Michael Griffin, administrador da NASA, afirmou que seria possível ter as cápsulas Orion operacionais em 2013 se fossem dados 2 biliões de dólares adicionais à NASA, mas esse pedido não foi feito.

A NASA está assim na vergonhosa situação de ter de dar biliões de dólares aos russos neste período de 5 anos, por não ter gasto meros milhões quando foi preciso...

Como diria um treinador de futebol muito conhecido - 'no eggs, no omelets'!


Fonte: MSNBC


NASA wary of relying on Russia

Moscow soon to be lone carrier of astronauts to the space station

By Marc Kaufman

The Washington Post

updated 2:29 a.m. ET March 7, 2008

Tomorrow night, a European spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from French Guiana on its maiden voyage to the international space station, giving NASA and the world a new way to reach the orbiting laboratory.

For NASA, however, the launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) also highlights a stark reality: In 2 1/2 years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The three space shuttles will be retired by then, because of their high cost and questionable safety, and NASA will have nothing ready to replace them until 2015 at the earliest.

For five years or more, the United States will be dependent on the technology of others to reach the station, which American taxpayers largely paid for. To complicate things further, the only nation now capable of flying humans to the station is Russia, giving it a strong bargaining position to decide what it wants to charge for the flights at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are becoming increasingly testy.

In addition, some fear the price will be paid not only in billions of dollars but also in lost American prestige and lost leverage on the Russians when it comes to issues such as aiding Iran with its nuclear program.

'Serious threat to our national security'
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin calls the situation his "greatest regret and greatest concern." For most of the five-year gap, he said, "we will be largely dependent on the Russians, and that is terrible place for the United States to be. I'm worried, and many others are worried."

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the subcommittee that oversees NASA, went further. "This is a very serious betrayal of American interests," he said. "This will be the first time since Sputnik when the United States will not have a significant space superiority. I remain dumbfounded that we've allowed this serious threat to our national security to develop."

The White House, Congress and the space community have known for years that the gap was looming, but there were always other priorities.

Those most involved with the issue say that its seriousness will become more glaring this summer, when negotiations with Russia begin and Congress is likely to debate whether to grant a waiver to the law that prohibits certain kinds of commerce with nations that support the Iranian or North Korean nuclear program.

Griffin has testified that while the waiver is essential, it is "unseemly, simply unseemly, for the United States -- the world's leading power and leading space power -- to be reduced to purchasing services like this. It affects, in my view, how we are seen in the world, and not for the better."

Private spacecraft?
NASA's budget calls for spending $2.6 billion for transportation to the space station between fiscal 2009 and 2013. As it stands now, much of that would go to the Russians.

With that prospect ahead, Griffin told Nelson's committee last week that he is working with the fledgling private rocket company SpaceX to speed its efforts to build a private spacecraft that can take over some of the work of ferrying astronauts into space. Both Nelson and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) had recommended that NASA formally push ahead with that effort.

But SpaceX, while eager to do the work, has not successfully orbited even a cargo spacecraft, let alone one designed to the much higher standards needed for human flight. Nonetheless, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in a telephone interview that his company might have a manned spacecraft capability by the end of 2011 if NASA exercises its option under a 2006 agreement to provide cargo service. With that go-ahead, SpaceX would put its manned rocket program into high gear, he said.

"Is there a risk that we won't succeed? Yes, there is," said Musk, co-founder of the PayPal online payment system. "But if the United States doesn't provide any competition to the Russians, then they have a monopoly on crew transport to the station and they can dictate their terms. Do taxpayers really want all that money to go to Russia, rather than to an American company with American workers?"

In his testimony, Griffin said he is inclined to exercise the human spaceflight option, but he also said he very much doubts that SpaceX will have a spacecraft ready for astronauts by 2012.

'Starved for funds'
The gap in American capability to reach the space station is the result of factors including the 2003 breakup of the space shuttle Columbia, the subsequent decision to retire the three remaining shuttles by September 2010 and the lack of additional funds to quickly build a replacement.

NASA has let contracts to design and test a new-generation rocket and crew capsule, but it has had to go slowly because of the high cost of operating the shuttles, which are the only spacecraft able to carry large components to the still-incomplete space station. Griffin has testified that the replacement spacecraft could be ready in 2013 rather than 2015 if the agency had an additional $2 billion, but the administration has not asked for the funding.

Last year, the White House opposed a bill passed by the Senate to give NASA an additional $1 billion to make up for some of the costs incurred after Columbia broke apart -- a step similar to one taken after the Challenger disaster in 1986.

"What we have here is an agency that has been given a lot to do but has been starved for funds," Nelson said. "I think the gap is largely due to the administration's refusal to give NASA the funds it needs. And now we'll be forced to give billions to the Russians because we didn't spend millions before. It's the worst of all worlds."

Griffin, a strong advocate for manned spaceflight and a loyal member of the administration, said that past Congresses and administrations let the manned space program atrophy and that it took President Bush's 2004 "vision" for human travel to the moon and Mars to rejuvenate the program.

Still, many see Bush as having limited interest in space. Not only have NASA budgets remained tight, but Bush never visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston during his six years as governor of Texas, and as president he visited once, for a memorial service for the lost Columbia astronauts.

EU may provide counterbalance
The European spacecraft scheduled for launch tomorrow night is the first of six cargo-carrying flights by Arianespace, a public-private company, in exchange for NASA ferrying a large European lab to the station on the shuttle. Chairman and chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said in an interview last week that the company would like to play a larger role in supplying the space station, but it is waiting for its first successful launch before pressing its case.

The European Union is scheduled to decide in November whether to enter the field of human spaceflight, potentially joining the club that so far includes only the United States, Russia and China.

Le Gall acknowledged that the ATV -- which is the size of a London double-decker bus -- is now more expensive to build and operate than its Russian competitors, but he said that may change if Russia becomes the sole carrier. Nonetheless, the Europeans face a number of obstacles in selling their space transport services to NASA, including buy-American provisions that favor homegrown companies such as SpaceX.

"We believe we can be an important part of the solution for the space station and counterbalance to the Russians, if we are given a chance," Le Gall said.

Despite the broad concern over NASA's future dependence on Russia, Griffin said the agency's experience with its most important space station partner has been good. The Russians helped astronauts stranded on the space station after the Columbia breakup, and they have continued to provide crew and cargo transport services -- currently as part of a $780 million, multiyear contract.

Griffin also said a new deal with the Russians has to be signed by early next year. The Russians, he said, need a three-year lead time to build a sufficient quantity of their expendable, but very dependable, Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

Oposição ambientalista à construção de nova torre de lançamento no Centro Espacial Kennedy

A NASA tem planos para construír uma nova torre de lançamento, para ser utilizada por operadores comerciais. No entanto este plano está a deparar com resistência por parte dos ambientalistas, já que o Centro Espacial Kennedy está numa reserva natural.

Doença no espaço adia a montagem do módulo Columbus

Há um astronauta doente a bordo da Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS). Ontem foram pedidas teleconferências com pessoal médico em terra, cujo conteúdo, como seria de esperar, não foi divulgado. Apenas foi dito que não se trata de nada que ponha a vida de alguém em risco. Também não foi divulgado o nome do astronauta afectado, embora um controlador de vôo europeu tenha confirmado hoje que se tratava do alemão Hans Schlegel.

A equipa que iria começar a montagem do Columbus foi alterada, porque o Schlegel fazia parte dessa equipa.

Poderá não ser nada de grave, a maioria dos astronautas sofre indisposições de maior ou menor gravidade quando entram num ambiente de gravidade zero, aguardemos eventuais informações futuras.

Fontes:

• Email da CBS Space News
• MSNBC

CBS Space News

5:20 PM, 2/9/08, Update: Spacewalk delayed 24 hours by crew medical issue; Schlegel to be replaced by Love on first spacewalk; Shannon confirms mission extension, refuses to discuss reasons for delay

In a surprise announcement, flight controllers today told the shuttle-station astronauts shortly after Atlantis docked with the lab complex to delay a planned Sunday spacewalk - and installation of the new Columbus research module - by 24 hours, extending Atlantis' mission by one day because of a crew medical issue.

German astronaut Hans Schlegel, originally scheduled to join Rex Walheim for the first of three spacewalks planned for the mission, will be replaced by astronaut Stan Love when the module is attached on Monday. No reason was given for the delay and astronaut swap, but the shuttle crew requested two private medical conferences with flight surgeons earlier today.

NASA does not discuss astronaut health issues, citing concern about medical privacy issues, and John Shannon, chairman of NASA's Mission Management Team, refused to provide any details at an afternoon briefing.

"It's not life threatening," Shannon said, refusing to identify which astronaut was involved.

The shuttle docked with the space station at 12:17 p.m. but because of technical issues, only a few minutes of live video were downlinked. Late today, the astronauts replayed videotape showing the shuttle crew entering the station and Schlegel did not show any clear signs of discomfort.

"There was a medical issue with the crew," Shannon said during his briefing. "The flight surgeons - of course, we have flight surgeons who are closely involved with the crew at all times, they do private medical conferences with the crew throughout the mission - the crew called down and asked for one during the rendezvous, which was a little bit of a surprise to us. They talked to the crew members, they understood what the issue was. I will just say it is not going to impact any of the objectives of this mission."

But it will have a mission impact. The first of the three spacewalks planned for Atlantis' mission, originally scheduled for Sunday by Walheim and Schlegel, was devoted to helping attach the European Space Agency's Columbus research lab to the station. That work now will be delayed one day and Love, who is not believed to have trained as extensively for the work as Schlegel, will assist Walheim. Love already planned to join Walheim for the mission's third spacewalk.

Citing medical privacy concerns, Shannon repeatedly refused to answer any questions about the nature of the medical issue, including whether the astronauts face any sort of contagious threat or whether Schlegel might be available for the second spacewalk of the mission, now targeted for Wednesday.

"You guys can fish all day, but I won't bite," Shannon said.

But about half the men and women who fly in space suffer nausea and other vestibular problems known collectively as space adaptation syndrome. But those symptoms typically go away by the second or third day of a mission as the astronaut becomes accustomed to the effects of weightlessness. Whether Schlegel, a 57-year-old German and father of seven making his second shuttle flight, was suffering from SAS was not known.

There are at least two prior cases of crew illness interferring with a U.S. spacewalk. During Apollo 9, a shakedown flight for NASA's lunar lander, Rusty Schweickart became ill in orbit, forcing a one-day delay for a planned spacewalk. An EVA planned for the fifth shuttle mission was called off because of a crew health issue.

Shannon said astronaut Leland Melvin, making his first flight, is the designated crew medical officer on board Atlantis and as such is "experienced in a variety of medical procedures. We carry a kit on board that has several different types of medicines and different medical capabilities and the crew is in constant contact with the flight surgeons on the ground. The flight surgeons know all about each crew members' medical history. It's something that's very well prepared for."

Shannon said Atlantis has plenty of supplies to support the one-day mission extension and, with additional power downs ordered late today, probably enough for a second day. NASA went into the flight planning to extend it by one day anyway to give the astronauts more time to activate the Columbus module.

The undisclosed medical issue "will cause us to re-arrange a few activities," Shannon said. "I think you heard it called up to the crew a little bit earlier that we're going to delay EVA number one by one day and it will be executed on flight day five. They also called up that Stan Love will replace Hans Schlegel as an EVA crew member.

"Stan has practiced all the activities of EVA-1 extensively and we talked it over with the crew and they're very happy with that and that's how we're going to go execute it," Shannon said. "So no impacts to the mission objectives, we just need to re-arrange some of the crew activities and when they happen. You might remember we went into this flight with one additional day we could add to it and we are very close to having a second day based on how we use the cryogenic consumables that produce electricity.

"We asked the team, since we are essentially going to use that one extension day tomorrow as a day for the team to prepare for EVA number one, we asked the team to power down the orbiter just a little bit more than they had planned pre flight to make sure we can get that second additional extension day. We have not decided to add that, but we're preserving the option to add it later on. If we don't add it, then that will just be more oxygen we can transfer over to the international space station."

Otherwise, Shannon said Atlantis is in good condition and that so far, no major problems have emerged during analysis of ascent and on-orbit photography of the shuttle's protective heat shield.

A small corner of one insulation blanket midway back on the shuttle's right side orbital maneuvering system rocket pod is pulled up and under study, but Shannon said it did not appear to be a serious problem

"Nobody is very excited about this one," he said. "It is in a much different position (than a blanket that was repaired on Atlantis' last flight). ... This is really shadowed by the pod, it's also shadowed by the wing. It does not see a very significant thermal environment. I don't expect this to be an issue but the team will continue to work it."

The only other issue of any significance involves one of Atlantis' flight computers, general purpose computer No. 3. GPC-3 failed to properly transition from "standby" to "run" when the astronauts powered up the full redundant set as part of their normal rendezvous procedures earlier today. Engineers believe the computer is healthy, Shannon said, but troubleshooting was deferred until after docking.

Shannon said engineers plan to read out the computer's memory to verify no hardware problems exist and then they will re-load flight software and in all likelihood, "it'll be just as good as new."

Flight planners are in the process of developing an alternate flight plan for Sunday. A revised NASA television schedule will be posted as soon as it becomes available.


MSNBC

Astronaut illness forces delay in spacewalk

Shuttle delivers $2 billion lab to station; installation put off an extra day

The Associated Press

updated 8:42 a.m. ET Feb. 10, 2008

HOUSTON - The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and space station geared up to inspect a damaged thermal blanket on Atlantis on Sunday after their main job — installing the Columbus lab — was delayed a day because of a crew medical problem.

German astronaut Hans Schlegel was pulled off the first spacewalk of the mission shortly after he arrived at the international space station Saturday aboard Atlantis. Managers bumped the spacewalk and Columbus’ hookup to the space station to Monday.

NASA declined to discuss the medical problem beyond saying it was not life-threatening, but a European flight controller confirmed Sunday that Schlegel was ill.

“We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for him to get better soon,” he said.

Sunday greetings
Schlegel, 56, a two-time space flier, sounded OK on Sunday morning when he spoke to Mission Control after waking up to music from fellow German Herbert Gronemeyer.

“Greetings to everybody in America, in Europe and in Germany, and especially of course to my close family and my lovely wife, Heike,” he said.

Schlegel was supposed to venture outside with American Rex Walheim on the first two of three planned spacewalks. His status on the second spacewalk, on Wednesday, was still uncertain.

The Columbus lab should have been unloaded from Atlantis and attached to the space station on Sunday, with two spacewalkers outside to help. Mission Control informed the astronauts that the installation would not take place until Monday just a few hours after the shuttle and the station joined up.

NASA said Schlegel’s shuttle crewmate, American Stanley Love, would take his place. Love trained for the work as a backup, just in case, and already was assigned to the mission’s third spacewalk, along with Walheim.

Shuttle commander Stephen Frick asked Mission Control on Sunday to clear Schlegel’s schedule the following day so he could help guide Love from inside the station.

After spending much of the morning preparing for Monday’s spacewalk, the crew will use cameras and a robotic arm to gather more images of a 1½ inch-by-1½ inch protrusion on one of the many blankets covering Atlantis’ right orbital maneuvering system pod, back near the tail.

The damage occurred during Thursday’s launch and was discovered Friday, flight director Mike Sarafin said.

Precise problem with blanket unclear
Space station flight director Ron Spencer said early Sunday that NASA did not know if the blanket was torn or if it was just sticking up a bit.

Engineers were trying to determine whether the damage posed a hazard for re-entry at flight’s end. The peeled-up section is smaller than one that required spacewalking repairs to Atlantis in June.

NASA is particularly attentive to the shuttle’s thermal shielding, ever since Columbia was destroyed during re-entry in 2003.

The delay in installing Columbus and carrying out the first spacewalk caused NASA to add a 12th day to the mission. Yet another day could be added; NASA had hoped to spend an extra day at the space station to help set up Columbus. Atlantis will remain at the orbiting complex until at least next weekend.

O desastre do Columbia foi há 5 anos

Há 5 anos, no dia 1 de Fevereiro de 2003, a poucos minutos de aterrar no Centro Espacial Kennedy, perderam-se todas as comunicações com o Space Shuttle Columbia. A bordo, os 7 astronautas deverão ter começado a receber inúmeros sinais de aviso de que algo não iria bem. Inúmeras luzes e sinais de alarme devem ter começado a soar, à medida que o computador do Columbia ia deixando de conseguir controlar a nave danificada. Pouco depois, começou a desintegração da nave. Nunca saberemos ao certo como estes 7 heróis morreram.

Hoje, 5 anos depois, ser-lhes-á prestada mais uma homenagem a bordo da próxima missão do Space Shuttle Atlantis, que deverá ter o seu lançamento já no dia 7.

Um minuto de silêncio não poderá nunca fazer justiça a estes grandes homens e mulheres, que deram as suas vidas por algo em que realmente acreditavam, a mais nobre e válida de todas as empresas humanas - a exploração do Espaço. Por isso proponho que reflictamos sobre eles e sobre nós, e no que poderemos fazer para merecermos as vidas de heróis como estes 7 astronautas.

Salvé Columbia!

Fonte: MSNBC

Links:

• Space Today: Tragedy of Space Shuttle Columbia
• Ryan Walters
  

Remembering Columbia, five years later

Lessons about safety culture still resonate, NASA managers say

By Tariq Malik

Space.com

updated 5:32 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2008

NASA has launched seven shuttle missions since the loss of seven astronauts aboard Columbia five years ago, but the disaster still resonates as the space program prepares for its most ambitious year yet since it resumed orbiter flight.

Beginning with the Atlantis orbiter's planned Feb. 7 launch to the international space station, NASA hopes to launch up to six shuttle flights this year — five of them dedicated to orbital construction. The lessons from Columbia, however, are always close by, mission managers said.

"I think every day about Columbia and how that came about, and how we can prevent similar events," NASA's shuttle chief Wayne Hale said this week, attributing the accident to what Apollo astronaut Frank Borman called a "failure of imagination."

Legacy of Columbia
Columbia broke apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere early on the morning of Feb. 1, 2003, bringing a tragic end to what had until then been a successful 16-day science mission. The shuttle's destruction claimed the lives of mission commander Rick Husband, pilot Willie McCool and mission specialists Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon — Israel's first astronaut.

Months later, investigators would trace the physical cause of the accident to a suitcase-sized chunk of foam that popped free from Columbia's external fuel tank during its launch. The foam punched a hole in the orbiter's heat shield along its left wing leading edge, leaving it vulnerable to the superheated atmospheric gases during re-entry.

Investigators also faulted NASA's internal culture for contributing the accident, a point the space agency has worked hard ever since to prevent from resurfacing.

"I think we had a culture that was very adversarial in a lot of ways, where bad news was not particularly well received," Hale told Space.com, adding that the agency has since strived to foster more open communications. "I think that has allowed a lot of the workforce to feel much more comfortable in bringing things forward that they would have been more hesitant to in the old days."

NASA held an official Day of Remembrance on Thursday to recall Columbia's crew, as well as astronauts killed in the Challenger accident in 1986, the 1967 Apollo 1 fire and others who died in the pursuit of space exploration.

Astronauts, agency officials, dignitaries and Columbia crew family members gathered at a public memorial service Friday at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

"I'm amazed that it's been five years," Evelyn Husband-Thomas, the widow of Columbia's commander, said during the service. "This morning I could not stop thinking about Rick and Willie, and Kalpana and Mike and Laurel and Ilan. All of our families went through so much that day. We so miss them and we will never forget them."

NASA chief Michael Griffin stressed that the agency must always remember that human lives, and the nation's space program, ride on its daily decisions.

"The more we remember those real reasons, the longer it will be before we have another cause for mourning," Griffin said in a statement.

Returning to flight
NASA returned its shuttle fleet to flight in July 2005 after spending more than two years and $1.4 billion to develop new heat shield inspection and safety tools. That year, the agency flew one shuttle flight and followed with three more 2006, and another three in 2007.

Former astronaut Eileen Collins, who commanded NASA's first post-Columbia mission STS-114, said the accident taught her that spaceflight is more dangerous and complicated than she realized. But it did not damper her support for the endeavor, she said.

"I believe that one of the most important things that we're doing as a country, if not the most important thing, is leaving our planet and exploring space," Collins said.

Astronauts now use a sensor-tipped extension of their shuttle's robotic arm to scan for heat shield damage in orbit. Before a shuttle docks at the space station, station astronauts make a complete photographic survey of its heat shield, then return the images to Earth for analysis. Meanwhile, engineers continue to develop new tools, some of which will be tested during shuttle flights this year, while tweaking orbiter fuel tanks to reduce the risk of foam debris like that which struck down Columbia.

"There seems to be a lean towards excessive caution," said John Logsdon, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, in an interview.

Logsdon said that, unlike its post-Challenger years, NASA has not slid back into a complacency or comfort zone during the last five years of shuttle flight.

The fact that the agency delayed Atlantis' launch from early December to next week to identify and fix a recurring fuel gauge sensor glitch is an example of its reinvigorated approach to safety, Logsdon said.

"They were tempted to say these sensors weren't needed, but they didn't," Logsdon said of the sensors, which serve as a backup system to shut down an orbiter's main engines before their fuel tank runs dry.

Continuing the track record
Logsdon said much of the shuttle's success since Columbia lies with top NASA leaders like Griffin and Hale, who have demonstrated a scrupulous and strong commitment to safety.

Their successors, he hopes, will continue that track record as NASA retires its three remaining space shuttles to make way for their capsule-based successor — the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle and its Ares rockets.

"Someday, historians will look back at our hardware and our technology and consider it primitive and risky, just as we look back at the early sailing ships and shake our head," William Gerstenmaier, head of NASA space operations, said during Friday's memorial.

He noted that those early explorers nevertheless accomplished amazing feats. "We do not fully know what our efforts in space will enable for future generation. But if we carefully and creatively apply our technology and accept some risk, the benefits to future generations are unlimited," he said.

NASA plans to retire the shuttle fleet by September 2010 after flying up to 13 more shuttle flights to complete station construction and overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope.

"I think you can carry attitudes over," Logsdon said of the shift to a new spacecraft. "And that new system is designed to be a much safer system."

Senador Norte Americano propõe prolongar o programa Space Shuttle para além de 2010.

Para tal propõe um aumento de 10 biliões de dólares ao orçamento da NASA, o que permitirá, na sua opinião, realizar mais algumas (5 ou 6) missões do Shuttle, e evitar o recurso da NASA a naves russas, até às naves Orion estarem operacionais, por volta de 2015. No entanto, o administrador da NASA afirma que esse volume de fundos é irrealista para o número de missões que seriam necessárias, além de reafirmar o risco que é voar com o Shuttle para além de 2010.

É a minha opinião, porém, que o risco existirá sempre, e missões deste tipo serão sempre extremamente caras, mesmo com as futuras naves Orion. Acho que a NASA está a fazer um trabalho satisfatório no controlo dos riscos inerentes à operação do Shuttle, e deveria considerar sériamente esta possibilidade.

Fonte: MSNBC

Lawmaker wants space shuttle extension
Weldon proposes $10 billion to keep ships flying past 2010
By Irene Klotz
Reuters
updated 7:55 p.m. ET Dec. 17, 2007

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The United States should keep flying the space shuttles past their 2010 retirement date to avoid depending on Russia to fly astronauts to the international space station, a Florida congressman said Monday.

U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, a Republican whose Florida district includes NASA's Kennedy Space Center, proposed extending the shuttles’ lifetime to close the gap until their replacement ships, called Orion, are ready for their first manned flights in 2015.

His proposal, which would cost about $10 billion, would have the shuttles make six or seven additional flights between 2010 and 2013 and speed up development of the Orion ships to be ready by then.

A second proposal would keep the shuttles flying until 2015 and leave Orion’s schedule alone.

“This is an issue of priorities,” said Weldon, who announced his plan at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Center on Monday.

The board investigating the 2003 Columbia accident recommended that the shuttle fleet be retired in 2010 unless the fleet was completely recertified, a process that NASA said would be too time-consuming and expensive to attempt.

President George W. Bush accepted the recommendation and ordered the shuttles’ retirement. He also directed NASA to complete construction of the space station and develop new spaceships and rockets that could travel to the station as well as to the moon and other destinations in the solar system as part of a program called Constellation.

“The 2010 date was really an arbitrary date that was really picked more by OMB [the U.S. Office of Management and Budget] than NASA,” said Weldon spokesman Jeremy Steffens.

“The risk [of flying the shuttle] does not increase overnight. Obviously there’s risk, and NASA is doing its best to mitigate it. The risk is worth the goals we set out,” Steffens said.

As the shuttles’ 2010 retirement nears, NASA planned on getting exemptions to a congressional ban that prohibits purchases of Russian Soyuz rockets. The ban was imposed to curb the spread of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, which Russia is accused of helping.

Steffens said that paying the Russians to ferry U.S. astronauts back and forth may not be a viable option either.

NASA hopes that U.S. commercial launch vehicles may be developed to transport cargo and perhaps eventually astronauts to the station.

Congress already rejected a proposed $1 billion boost to NASA’s 2008 budget to keep Orion’s development on schedule.

NASA says, however, it is unsafe, expensive and counterproductive to keep flying the shuttle past 2010.

“Flying the space shuttle past 2010 would carry significant risks, particularly to our efforts to build and purchase new transportation systems that are less complex, less expensive to operate, and better suited to serving both [the space station] and exploration missions to the moon, Mars and beyond,” NASA administrator Michael Griffin told a congressional oversight committee last month.

Griffin said it would cost $2.5 billion to $4 billion per year to keep the shuttles flying past 2010.