Space Station Appearing Nationwide Over July 4 Weekend

As America celebrates its 233rd birthday this holiday weekend, there will be an extra light in the sky along with the fireworks. Across the country, Americans will be treated to spectacular views of the International Space Station as it orbits 220 miles above Earth.

Many locations will have unusually long sighting opportunities of as much as five minutes, weather permitting, as the station flies almost directly overhead.

To find out when to see the station from your city, visit:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings

The largest spacecraft ever built, the station also is the most reflective. It will be brighter than most stars at dawn and dusk, appearing as a solid, glowing light, slowly traversing the predawn or evening sky. It is visible when lit by the sun while the ground below is not in full daylight. It moves across the sky too fast for conventional telescopes, but a good set of binoculars can enhance the viewing experience, even revealing some detail of the station's structure.

The station circles Earth every 90 minutes. It is 357 feet long, about the length of a football field including the end zones, and 45 feet tall. Its reflective solar arrays are 240 feet wide, a wingspan greater than that of a jumbo jet, and have a total surface area of more than 38,000 square feet.

An international crew of six astronauts, including American flight engineer Michael Barratt, is aboard the complex conducting research and continuing its assembly. Other crew members are from Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan.

For more information about the station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA TV to Broadcast Space Station Crew's Move of Return Craft

Three members of the International Space Station crew will board a Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station and move it to a different docking port on Thursday, July 2. The journey will be broadcast live on NASA Television.

Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt of NASA and Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will undock the Soyuz TMA-14 return spacecraft, from the Zvezda service module and fly a short distance to the Pirs docking compartment. The flight is expected to take about 30 minutes.

NASA TV coverage will begin at 4 p.m. CDT with undocking planned for 4:26 p.m.

While Padalka, Barratt and Wakata are aboard the Soyuz, Expedition 20 Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko of Russia, Bob Thirsk of the Canadian Space Agency and Frank De Winne of the European Space Agency will monitor the move from inside the station. Their Soyuz return craft, the TMA-15, is docked to the Earth-facing port of the station's Zarya module.

The relocation of Soyuz TMA-14 opens the Zvezda docking port for the arrival of a new Russian Progress cargo vehicle in late July.

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For information about NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Crescent Earth

The crescent Earth rises above the lunar horizon in this spectacular photograph taken from the Apollo 17 spacecraft in lunar orbit during final lunar landing mission in the Apollo program.

Ulysses Spacecraft Ends Historic Mission of Discovery

Ulysses, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission, officially ceased operations today, after receiving commands from ground controllers to do so. The spacecraft, which operated for more than 18 years, charted the unexplored regions of space above the poles of the sun.

As planned via commands beamed to the spacecraft earlier in the day, Ulysses switched to its low-gain antenna at 1:09 p.m. PDT (4:09 p.m. EDT, or 2009 UTC). As a result, ground controllers were no longer able to pick up a signal from Ulysses, which had also been commanded to switch off its transmitter completely at 1:15 p.m. PDT (4:15 p.m. EDT, or 2015 UTC).

When space shuttle Discovery launched Ulysses on Oct. 6, 1990, it had an expected lifetime of five years. The mission gathered unique information about the heliosphere, the bubble in space carved by the solar wind, for nearly four times longer than expected.

"This has been a remarkable scientific endeavor," said Richard Marsden, Ulysses mission manager and project scientist at the European Space Agency. "The results Ulysses obtained have exceeded our wildest dreams many times over."

Ulysses made nearly three complete orbits of the sun. The probe revealed for the first time the three-dimensional character of galactic cosmic radiation, energetic particles produced in solar storms and the solar wind. Not only has Ulysses allowed scientists to map constituents of the heliosphere in space, its longevity enabled them to observe the sun over a longer period of time than ever before.

"The sun's activity varies with an 11-year cycle, and now we have measurements covering almost two complete cycles," said Marsden. "This long observation has led to one of the mission's key discoveries, namely that the solar wind has grown progressively weaker during the mission and is currently at its weakest since the start of the Space Age."

In addition to measuring the solar wind and charged particles, Ulysses instruments measured small dust particles and neutral gases from local interstellar space that penetrate into the heliosphere. Ulysses had an unprecedented three chance encounters with comet tails, registered more than 1,800 cosmic gamma-ray bursts, and provided findings for more than 1,000 scientific articles and two books.

"The breadth of science addressed by Ulysses is truly astonishing," said Ed Smith, Ulysses project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The data acquired during the long lifetime of this mission have provided an unprecedented view of the solar activity cycle and its consequences and will continue to keep scientists busy for many years to come."

Ulysses' successes have not been confined to scientific data. The extended mission presented significant challenges to the NASA-European operations team. In particular, critical parts of the spacecraft became progressively colder with time. In recent years, a major effort was needed to prevent the onboard hydrazine fuel from freezing. The operations team continually created methods to allow the aging space probe to continue its scientific mission.

Earlier this month, the Ulysses mission team received a NASA Group Achievement Award. Another milestone was reached on June 10 when Ulysses became the longest-running ESA-operated spacecraft, overtaking the International Ultraviolet Explorer which logged 18 years and 246 days of operations.

"The Ulysses team performed exceptionally by building and operating a research probe that would return scientific data for analysis no matter what challenges it encountered," said Arik Posner, Ulysses program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The knowledge gained from Ulysses proves what can be achieved through international cooperation in space research."

The Ulysses orbital path is carrying the spacecraft away from Earth. The ever-widening gap has progressively limited the amount of data transmitted. Ulysses project managers, with the concurrence of ESA and NASA, decided it was an appropriate time to end this epic scientific adventure.

ESA Ulysses Mission Operations Manager Nigel Angold points out that more than a year ago, "We had estimated Ulysses would not survive further than July 2008. However, the spacecraft didn't stop surprising us and kept working a full year, collecting invaluable science data. It's nice to be going out in style."

After the spacecraft was placed into low Earth orbit in 1990, a combination of solid fuel motors propelled Ulysses toward Jupiter. Ulysses swung by Jupiter on Feb. 8, 1992. The giant planet's gravity bent the spacecraft's flight path southward and away from the ecliptic plane, putting the probe into a final orbit that would take it over the sun's south and north poles.

The European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Centre and European Space Operations Centre managed the mission in coordination with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ulysses is tracked by NASA's Deep Space Network. A joint ESA/NASA team at JPL oversaw spacecraft operations and data management. Teams from universities and research institutes in Europe and the United States provided the 10 instruments on board.

More information about the mission is available at http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov .

Five Years Ago, Cassini Began Orbiting Saturn

NASA's Cassini mission has been orbiting Saturn for five Earth years as of June 30, 2009. That's about one sixth of a Saturnian year, enough time for the spacecraft to have observed seasonal changes in the planet, its moons and sunlight's angle on the dramatic rings.

Cassini passed through a gap in the rings as it entered orbit on June 30, 2004. It finished its prime mission in 2008 and continues to use its 12 instruments in an extended mission that includes extensive further studies of the moons Titan and Enceladus.

Saturn … Four Years On

As Saturn advances in its orbit toward equinox and the sun gradually moves northward on the planet, the motion of Saturn's ring shadows and the changing colors of its atmosphere continue to transform the face of Saturn as seen by Cassini.

This captivating natural color view was created from images collected shortly after Cassini began its extended Equinox Mission in July 2008. It can be contrasted with earlier images from the spacecraft's four-year prime mission that show the shadow of Saturn's rings first draped high over the planet's northern hemisphere, then shifting southward as northern summer changed to spring (see PIA06606 and PIA09793). During this time, the colors of the northern hemisphere have evolved from azure blue to a multitude of muted-colored bands.

This mosaic combines 30 images -- 10 each of red, green and blue light -- taken over the course of approximately two hours as Cassini panned its wide-angle camera across the entire planet and ring system on July 23, 2008, from a southerly elevation of 6 degrees.

Six moons complete this constructed panorama: Titan (5,150 kilometers, or 3,200 miles, across), Janus (179 kilometers, or 111 miles, across), Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles, across), Pandora (81 kilometers, or 50 miles, across), Epimetheus (113 kilometers, or 70 miles, across) and Enceladus (504 kilometers, or 313 miles, across).

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured these images at a distance of approximately 1.1 million kilometers (690,000 miles) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 70 kilometers (43.6 miles) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Predicting the Weather

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV with the NASA/NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-O launched on June 27, 2009, from Space Launch Complex-37, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. GOES-O will provide more accurate prediction and tracking of severe storms and other weather phenomena, resulting in earlier and more precise warnings to the public.

NASA, Japan Release Most Complete Topographic Map of Earth

NASA and Japan released a new digital topographic map of Earth Monday that covers more of our planet than ever before. The map was produced with detailed measurements from NASA's Terra spacecraft.

The new global digital elevation model of Earth was created from nearly 1.3 million individual stereo-pair images collected by the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or Aster, instrument aboard Terra. NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, known as METI, developed the data set. It is available online to users everywhere at no cost.

"This is the most complete, consistent global digital elevation data yet made available to the world," said Woody Turner, Aster program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This unique global set of data will serve users and researchers from a wide array of disciplines that need elevation and terrain information."

According to Mike Abrams, Aster science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the new topographic information will be of value throughout the Earth sciences and has many practical applications. "Aster's accurate topographic data will be used for engineering, energy exploration, conserving natural resources, environmental management, public works design, firefighting, recreation, geology and city planning, to name just a few areas," Abrams said.

Previously, the most complete topographic set of data publicly available was from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. That mission mapped 80 percent of Earth's landmass, between 60 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south. The new Aster data expand coverage to 99 percent, from 83 degrees north latitude and 83 degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the new data is 30 meters (98 feet) apart.

"The Aster data fill in many of the voids in the shuttle mission's data, such as in very steep terrains and in some deserts," said Michael Kobrick, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission project scientist at JPL. "NASA is working to combine the Aster data with that of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and other sources to produce an even better global topographic map."

NASA and METI are jointly contributing the Aster topographic data to the Group on Earth Observations, an international partnership headquartered at the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, for use in its Global Earth Observation System of Systems. This "system of systems" is a collaborative, international effort to share and integrate Earth observation data from many different instruments and systems to help monitor and forecast global environmental changes.

NASA, METI and the U.S. Geological Survey validated the data, with support from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and other collaborators. The data will be distributed by NASA's Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science Data Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., and by METI's Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center in Tokyo.

Aster is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched on Terra in December 1999. Aster acquires images from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, with spatial resolutions ranging from about 15 to 90 meters (50 to 300 feet). A joint science team from the U.S. and Japan validates and calibrates the instrument and data products. The U.S. science team is located at JPL.

For visualizations of the new Aster topographic data, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20090629.html .

Data users can download the Aster global digital elevation model at: https://wist.echo.nasa.gov/~wist/api/imswelcome and http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

NASA Debuts the Entire 2008 Hurricane Season in New On-line Video

Imagine watching all of the tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes of 2008 as they formed in the Atlantic Ocean Basin and either faded at sea or made landfall. Thanks to NASA technology and satellite data coupled with data from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operated satellite, you can see the tracks of storms from Arthur to Paloma from birth to death.

There were 17 tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Hurricane Season, which includes the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Sixteen of the storms were strong enough to be named, and only one stayed a tropical depression.

The movie displays the infrared cloud imagery from the geosynchronous weather satellites, principally NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-12. The original cloud imagery was remapped and enhanced to display cloudtop texture. The GOES cloud images were overlaid on a true-color background map previously created from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite.

The movie, which can be found on NASA's Hurricane Web page (www.nasa.gov/hurricane), or on the NASA GOES web page, is television production-quality. "These are large, high-resolution, colorful animations, made for use or editing by professional documentary producers or for anyone interested in hurricanes," said Dr. Dennis Chesters, GOES Project Scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheres at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

The movie depicts the entire 2008 hurricane season based on six months of GOES imagery at 30 minute intervals from May 1 to November 18, 2008. Each "frame" has a date and time stamp with the times in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). There are 2 versions of the movie available: a 720p and 1080p HD-TV digital animation.

There's also a "highlights" movie that features the middle of the hurricane season from July 2 to September 14. The shortened "Highlights" movie from Bertha to Ike, July 2-Sept. 14 can be found here -- > Highlights

"Most versions are overlaid with hurricane names and storm tracks, with the tracks represented by dots whose size and color represent NOAA's hurricane Category 1 to 5 (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale)," Dr. Chesters said. "Some movies have captions summarizing each storm in a sidebar. Movies without named tracks are useful for forecasters and researchers who want to see the regional meteorology without visual distractions."

All of the movies in various formats labeled or unlabeled, large or small, are also on-line and downloadable at the GOES page for "Hurricane Alley 2008"
> Hurricane Alley

The NASA GOES Project office plans to make a movie of the 2009 season.

Related Links:

> Entire 2008 Hurricane Season, High Resolution
> Entire 2008 Hurricane Season, Low Resolution

Astronaut Candidates

NASA has selected nine men and women for the 2009 astronaut candidate class.

NASA Selects New Astronauts for Future Space Exploration

After reviewing more than 3500 applications, NASA has selected nine men and women for the 2009 astronaut candidate class. They will begin training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston, in August.

“This is a very talented and diverse group we've selected,” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Space Operations. “They will join our current astronauts and play very important roles for NASA in the future. In addition to flying in space, astronauts participate in every aspect of human spaceflight, sharing their expertise with engineers and managers across the country. We look forward to working with them as we transcend from the shuttle to our future exploration of space, and continue the important engineering and scientific discoveries aboard the International Space Station."

The new astronaut candidates:

Serena M. Aunon, 33, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch-Wyle flight surgeon for NASA’s Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs; born in Indianapolis, Ind. Aunon holds degrees from The George Washington University, University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston, and UTMB.

Jeanette J. Epps, 38, of Fairfax, Va.; technical intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency; born in Syracuse, N.Y. Epps holds degrees from LeMoyne College and the University of Maryland.

Jack D. Fischer, Major U.S. Air Force, 35, of Reston, Va.; test pilot; U.S. Air Force Strategic Policy intern (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the Pentagon; born in Boulder, Colo. Fischer is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Michael S. Hopkins, Lt. Colonel U.S. Air Force, 40, of Alexandria, Va.; special assistant to the Vice Chairman (Joint Chiefs of Staff) at the Pentagon; born in Lebanon, Mo. Hopkins holds degrees from the University of Illinois and Stanford University.

Kjell N. Lindgren, 36, of League City, Texas; University of Texas Medical Branch-Wyle flight surgeon for NASA’s Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs; born in Taipei, Taiwan. Lindgren has degrees from the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado State University, University of Colorado, the University of Minnesota, and UTMB.

Kathleen (Kate) Rubins, 30, of Cambridge, Mass.; born in Farmington, Conn.; principal investigator and fellow, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT and conducts research trips to the Congo. Rubins has degrees from the University of California-San Diego and Stanford University.

Scott D. Tingle, Commander U.S. Navy, 43, of Hollywood, Md.; born in Attleboro, Mass.; test pilot and Assistant Program Manager-Systems Engineering at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Tingle holds degrees from Southeastern Massachusetts University (now University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) and Purdue University.

Mark T. Vande Hei, Lt. Colonel U.S. Army, 42, of El Lago, Texas; born in Falls Church, Va.; flight controller for the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, as part of U.S. Army NASA Detachment. Vande Hei is a graduate of Saint John’s University and Stanford University.

Gregory R. (Reid) Wiseman, Lt. Commander U.S. Navy, 33, of Virginia Beach, Va.; born in Baltimore; test pilot; Department Head, Strike Fighter Squadron 103, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, based out of Oceana Virginia. Wiseman is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Johns Hopkins University.

NASA Television’s Video File will include b-roll of astronaut training. For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://ww.nasa.gov/station

For more information about astronaut selection and training, visit:

http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/astronauts/

GOES-O Separates from Second Stage to Begin Mission

The GOES-O weather satellite is on its own following a successful separation from the Delta IV second stage. The separation occurred soon after the second stage performed the final of three burns to place the GOES-O spacecraft in a transfer orbit that will eventually reach about 22,300 miles above Earth. The satellite will be checked out through a series of tests in coming weeks. The GOES-O launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., at 6:51 p.m. EDT aboard a Delta IV rocket.‬

GOES-O Reaches Orbit

The GOES-O satellite lifted off from Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:51 p.m. EDT atop a Delta IV rocket. From a position about 22,300 miles above Earth, the advanced weather satellite will keep an unblinking eye on atmospheric conditions in the Eastern United States and Atlantic Ocean.

Mission Overview
GOES-O is the latest weather satellite developed by NASA to aid the nation's meteorologists and climate scientists. The acronym stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. The spacecraft in the series provide the familiar weather pictures seen on United States television newscasts every day. The satellites are equipped with a formidable array of sensors and instruments.

GOES provides nearly continuous imaging and sounding, which allows forecasters to better measure changes in atmospheric temperature and moisture distributions, hence increasing the accuracy of their forecasts. GOES environmental information is used for a host of applications, including weather monitoring and prediction models.

› View GOES Lithograph
› View GOES Lithograph Back

NASA Engineer Helps Comedian Tackle Fear of Flying

Survey any number of airline passengers and you may not hear the most positive reaction to air travel these days. Seats are cramped. Planes are crowded. And don't even get anybody started on delays, security procedures or extra costs. So what would possess anyone to live on an airplane for a month and endure 30 days of conditions many people would prefer to avoid?

Meet Mark Malkoff.

The 33-year-old comedian/writer/filmmaker is staying on an AirTran airplane the entire month of June and sharing his experiences with the public via the web. According to his website, markonairtran.com, "Although I'll switch planes, I'll never set foot in an airport. I'll change flights by way of the tarmac."

How does somebody keep busy on a plane for an entire month? Malkoff's videos show he's already memorized the SkyMall catalogue, played Twister and called Bingo over the airplane microphone. But he's also been meeting new people, including aerospace engineer Anna McGowan from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

McGowan visited with Malkoff at the nearby Newport News - Williamsburg Airport to help him learn more about flying and especially about the research NASA is doing to make more it efficient and environmentally friendly.

"We're developing technologies for the next generation of flight," said McGowan. "We're working on engines that have a much lower fuel consumption. We're also reducing the weight of airplanes using innovative materials that are lighter weight but stronger than they are today."

Malkoff started his journey "to get over my fear of flying. I've struggled with the fear for years." He says flying has definitely gotten easier. "If the fear started at a 10 ... it's now about a two," he said.

But even after flying 197 hours and 82,000 miles (approx. 132,000 km), Malkoff still had questions about why planes do some of the things they do. He asked McGowan why planes have to bank or fly at a "tilt".

"The pilot is trying very carefully to make a smooth one-G turn, so that your glasses aren't sliding off the edge of your tray and so that everybody stays level in the airplane," said McGowan. "He wants to avoid side slip."

Joining McGowan at the airport was Johnny Alonso, one of the hosts of "NASA 360," a half hour NASA TV program that explores NASA's contributions to everyday life. NASA 360 and a crew that follows Malkoff both videotaped the conversation for future shows.

Satellites Guide Relief to Earthquake Victims

On May 28 at 2:24 a.m. local time, a deadly earthquake rocked Honduras, killing seven people and injuring several others, demolishing homes, damaging scores of other buildings, and sending terrified residents running through the streets.

"I woke up immediately, and all I could do was hug my youngest son and pray," says Dalia Martinez of San Pedro Sula, Honduras. "After a few minutes, my family and I went outside, where my neighbors were already gathered, likewise terrified about what happened but grateful we were all okay. Since then, we’ve been sleeping with flashlights and telephones within reach, because the aftershocks have been strong."

Fortunately for Martinez and other shaken residents, disaster officials knew exactly where to send help. A state-of-the-art Earth observation system called SERVIR directed them to the hardest hit areas.

Meaning "to serve" in Spanish, SERVIR is a joint effort of NASA, CATHALAC, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Regional Center for the Mapping of Resources for Development, and other partners. The system uses satellite imagery to zero in on places where a flood, fire, hurricane, or earthquake has left destruction in its wake. Team members combine satellite data with ground observations, and display (for all to view) a near real-time map of crisis points. At a glance, decisions-makers can see the locations of most severe damage so they can send help in a hurry.

"The Honduras earthquake was a perfect example of SERVIR at its best," says Emil Cherrington, Senior Scientist at SERVIR's regional operational facility at CATHALAC in Panama. "It was like a chain reaction. People from agencies and organizations in several countries worked together after the earthquake to pinpoint precise locations where support was needed."

Breaking news stories revealed that the worst infrastructural damage was restricted, in general, to Honduras and Belize, so the SERVIR team at CATHALAC began to assemble baseline imagery and data for a bird’s eye view of those areas. They contacted Stuart Frye of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and asked him to arrange satellite imagery.

The next day, Frye notified the team that the Taiwanese would image the hardest hit areas by using their Formosat-2 satellite. In fact, the Taiwanese were already in action.

Dr. Cheng-Chien Liu of the National Cheng-Kung University of Taiwan explains: "President Ma Ying-Jeou of Taiwan and his delegation were visiting Belize the night earthquake struck. As news of the quake spread across the Pacific, all Taiwanese were shocked and very anxious to confirm their safety and that of the people who lived in the countries hit."

"We knew the fastest way to capture images of the disaster area would be to use Formosat-2. So I issued an urgent request for assistance to Dr. An-Ming Wu, the Deputy General Director of National Space Organization. Even though it was the Dragon Boat holiday and all Taiwanese were enjoying their family reunion, Dr. Wu called the Formosat-2 mission operation team to rush back to the control center. The three critical images were taken in record time!"

Dan Irwin, SERVIR Project Director at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, recalls the lightning-fast response: "I was in a bus in Berlin when I received an email from Dr. Liu telling me they had the images ready to send. It was early Saturday morning in Panama, but I called and woke Emil [Cherrington] up anyway to let him know."

"Dr. Liu was the one who lost sleep," says Cherrington. "He stayed up until 2 a.m. Taiwan time sending the images to our servers at CATHALAC. The data volume was huge, so the transfer was slow, but he wouldn't go home until he was sure we received all the images."

Herschel Opens Its Infrared Eyes

The Herschel Space Observatory has snapped its first picture since blasting into space on May 14, 2009. The mission, led by the European Space Agency with important participation from NASA, will use infrared light to explore our cosmic roots, addressing questions of how stars and galaxies are born.

The new "sneak preview" image was taken in an early attempt to demonstrate that Herschel works, and, in particular, that its telescope is focused and correctly aligned with the science instruments, and to whet our appetites for what's yet to come. It shows the Whirlpool galaxy, which lies relatively nearby, about 35 million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici.

The galaxy was first observed by Charles Messier in 1773, who gave the beauty its official name of Messier 51. Back then, astronomers, including William Herschel, the observatory's namesake, catalogued objects like these as fuzzy nebulae without knowing their true nature. Later, Messier 51 became one of the first of these fuzzy objects observed to have a spiral structure, a finding that eventually led to the revelation that galaxies full of stars exist far from our own.

The image is a composite of infrared light captured with Herschel's Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer at three wavelengths: 70, 100 and 160 microns. Herschel's full wavelength range spans 55 to 672 microns. The blue and white areas show where stars are actively forming, while the brown regions contain cold dust. The brightest blue dot at top left is a smaller, companion galaxy.

Longer-wavelength light inherently does not produce pictures with resolution as high as those obtained at shorter wavelengths, such as visible light. However, because Herschel's mirror is the largest infrared astronomy mirror ever launched in space (3.5 meters, or about 11.5 feet across), it can take the sharpest pictures to date at the particular wavelengths it observes.

During its prime mission phase, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, also a space-based infrared telescope, could see shorter-wavelength light, with wavelengths ranging from 3.6 to 160 microns. Because the two telescopes are able to see, for the most part, different wavelengths of light, their results complement each other, highlighting the multifaceted features of cosmic objects. Spitzer's shorter-wavelength infrared view of the Whirlpool galaxy, in comparison to a visible-light view, can be seen at http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/image.php?image_name=ssc2004-19a .

Herschel is in the final stretches of its journey to the second Lagrange point of the Earth-sun system. The observatory will spend its lifetime, estimated to be at least three-and-a-half-years, orbiting this point, which is about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth on the opposite side of our planet from the sun. After a cover protecting the telescope's instruments was popped open on June 14, engineers and scientists commanded the telescope to take its first test picture. The telescope is still being commissioned, with science observations expected to begin later this year.

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by a consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the United States astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu .

The NASA Herschel Science Center is part of the consortium that developed the Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer.

Ulysses Hears the Siren's Song

Ulysses, a joint NASA and European Space Agency mission, will officially cease operations Monday, June 30, when the command to switch off the transmitter is uplinked to the spacecraft. Ulysses, which operated for more than 18 years, had charted the unexplored regions of space above the poles of the sun.

The Ulysses orbital path is carrying the spacecraft away from Earth. The ever-widening gap has progressively limited the amount of data transmitted. Ulysses project managers, with the concurrence of ESA and NASA, decided it was an appropriate time to end this epic scientific adventure.

Space Shuttle Discovery launched Ulysses on Oct. 6, 1990. A combination of solid fuel motors propelled Ulysses out of low-Earth orbit and toward Jupiter. Ulysses swung by Jupiter on Feb. 8, 1992. The giant planet's gravity bent the spacecraft's flight path southward and away from the ecliptic plane, putting the probe into a final orbit that would take it over the sun's south and north poles.

The European Space Agency's European Space Research and Technology Centre and European Space Operations Centre has managed the mission in coordination with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Ulysses is tracked by NASA’s Deep Space Network. A joint ESA/NASA team at JPL has overseen spacecraft operations and data management. Teams from universities and research institutes in Europe and the U.S. provided the 10 instruments on board.

More information about the mission is available at: http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov

QuikScat Finds Tempests Brewing In 'Ordinary' Storms

Satellite, Now Entering Its Second Decade, Has Revolutionized Marine Weather Forecasts

"June is busting out all over," as the song says, and with it, U.S. residents along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts begin to gaze warily toward the ocean, aware that the hurricane season is revving up. In the decade since NASA's QuikScat satellite and its SeaWinds scatterometer launched in June 1999, the satellite has measured the wind speed and wind direction of these powerful storms, providing data that are increasingly used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Hurricane Center and other world forecasting agencies. The data help scientists detect these storms, understand their wind fields, estimate their intensity and track their movement.

But tropical cyclones aren't the only storms that generate hurricane-force winds. Among others that do is a type of storm that dominates the weather in parts of the United States and other non-tropical regions every fall, winter and into spring: extratropical cyclones.

Extratropical Cyclones: Meteorological 'Bombs'

Scientists have long known that extratropical cyclones (also known as mid-latitude or baroclinic storms) sometimes produce hurricane-force winds. But before QuikScat, hurricane-force extratropical cyclones were thought to be relatively rare. Thanks to QuikScat, we now know that such storms occur much more frequently than previously believed, and the satellite has given forecasters an effective tool for routinely and consistently detecting and forecasting them.

These storms, which occur near busy trans-oceanic shipping lanes, pose a significant threat to life and property for those on the high seas, generating high winds and waves up to 30 meters (100 feet) high. When they make landfall, in areas like Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, New England and the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast, they produce strong winds, high surf, coastal flooding, heavy rains, river flooding and even blizzard conditions.

Take the "Hanukkah Eve" extratropical cyclone of Dec. 14-15, 2006, for example. That storm viciously raked the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia with torrential rainfall and hurricane-force winds exceeding 87 knots (100 miles per hour) in spots. Dozens of people were injured and 18 people lost their lives, while thousands of trees were downed, power was knocked out for more than 1.5 million residents and structural damage topped $350 million.

NOAA defines an extratropical cyclone as "a storm system that primarily gets its energy from the horizontal temperature contrasts that exist in the atmosphere." These low pressure systems have associated cold fronts, warm fronts and occluded fronts. Tropical cyclones, in contrast, don't usually vary much in temperature at Earth's surface, and their winds are generated by the energy released as clouds and rain form in warm, moist, tropical air. While a tropical cyclone's strongest winds are near Earth's surface, the strongest winds in extratropical cyclones are about 12 kilometers (8 miles) up, in the tropopause. Tropical cyclones can become extratropical, and vice versa.

Extratropical cyclones occur in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific year-round. Those with hurricane-force winds have been observed from September through May. Their frequency typically begins to increase in October, peaks in December and January, and tapers off sharply after March. They can range from less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) in diameter to more than 4,000 kilometers (nearly 2,500 miles) across. They typically last about five days, but their hurricane-force winds are usually short-lived--just 24 hours or less. Because they can intensify rapidly, they're often referred to as meteorological "bombs." Wind speeds in extratropical cyclones can vary from just 10 or 20 knots (12 to 23 miles per hour) to hurricane-force (greater than 63 knots, or 74 miles per hour). During their development, they can trek along at more than 30 knots (35 miles per hour), but they slow down as they mature. At their seasonal peak, up to eight such storms of varying intensity have been observed at once in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific.

Early work by scientists at NASA, NOAA and other organizations demonstrated the effectiveness of using scatterometers for detecting these powerful and destructive winds. Scatterometers work by sending radar signals to the ocean surface and measuring the strength of the radar signals that bounce back. The higher the wind speed, the more the ocean surface is disturbed, and the stronger the reflection that is bounced back to the satellite.

Among those who pioneered these efforts at NASA was Senior Research Scientist Timothy Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who used data from the NASA Scatterometer, the predecessor to QuikScat, to study the transition of tropical cyclones into extratropical storms in 1997. In addition, Robert Atlas of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., demonstrated that scatterometer data were able to improve predictions of extratropical storm strength and location.

Raising Forecaster Awareness

Joe Sienkiewicz, chief of the Ocean Applications Branch at NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center, Camp Springs, Md., says QuikScat data have raised the awareness of forecasters to the occurrence of hurricane-force intensity conditions in extratropical cyclones and have significantly advanced their short-term wind warning and forecast processes.

"QuikScat winds have given forecasters at NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center a high level of situational awareness over the data-sparse waters of the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans," he said. "Ocean Prediction Center forecasters daily examine every QuikScat pass and patch of wind and frequently base wind warning and forecast decisions solely on QuikScat winds. Through confidence gained from QuikScat, the National Weather Service began issuing warnings for dangerous hurricane-force winds in extratropical cyclones in December 2000.

"From 10 years of QuikScat, we have learned that hurricane force winds in extratropical cyclones occur more frequently than thought, are most frequent in winter months, and the conditions are most often observed south of the cyclone center," he added.

Over the years, the number of storms observed with hurricane-force winds has steadily increased due to forecasters gaining confidence using the data, and improvements to the QuikScat data. From the fall of 2006 through 2008, NOAA's Ocean Prediction Center identified and issued warnings for 115 separate extratropical cyclones (64 in the Atlantic and 51 in the Pacific) that reached hurricane force.

As confirmed in a 2008 study, QuikScat substantially extends the ability of forecasters to detect hurricane-force wind events in extratropical storms. For the studied case, QuikScat was able to identify more than three-and-a-half times as many hurricane-force events as combined data from the European ASCAT sensor on the METOP-A satellite, directly-measured buoy and ship information, and model predictions.

Another study in 2002 found that incorporating QuikScat data increased the number of wind warnings the Ocean Prediction Center issued for extratropical cyclones by 30 percent in the North Atlantic and by 22 percent in the North Pacific. Between 2003 and 2006, the Ocean Prediction Center's forecasters successfully predicted hurricane-force winds two days in advance 58 percent of the time in the Atlantic and 44 percent in the Pacific. Considering that a successful forecast of hurricane-force winds requires accurate prediction of the timing and intensity of an explosive deepening cyclone, these numbers are impressive.

QuikScat data have been instrumental in the ability to forecast hurricane-force extratropical cyclones several days in advance, while they are still well out over the ocean. Forecasters can use the data to determine which numerical weather prediction models are handling a storm the best, thereby improving the accuracy of forecasts and increasing warning lead times. QuikScat data are available to forecasters within three hours of acquisition.

The availability of a consistent observing capability for extratropical cyclones from QuikScat has allowed NOAA to add a third "hurricane-force" warning category for extratropical cyclone winds, in addition to gale and storm, providing better warnings of a coming storm's severity. The U.S. Coast Guard broadcasts these warnings by radiofax, and they are posted online at: http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov .

A Boon to Shipping

These extratropical cyclone warnings have a great economic impact on the $200 billion global marine shipping industry. A recent study estimates improvements to warning and forecast services due to QuikScat save the container and bulk shipping industry $135 million a year by reducing their exposure to hurricane-force wind conditions in non-tropical storms over the North Pacific and North Atlantic. Without QuikScat, the severity of many extratropical cyclones would not be determined. The data are also vital to the fishing industry, offshore energy industries, search and rescue organizations, and agencies that track and manage marine hazards like oil spills.

Paul Chang, ocean winds science team lead at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service/Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Camp Springs, Md., said ocean vector wind measurements from QuikScat have become a basic part of NOAA's day-to-day forecasting and warning processes.

"The 10 years of observations from the QuikScat mission have provided critical information for the monitoring, modeling, forecasting and research of the atmosphere, oceans and climate," he said.

For more information about QuickScat, visit http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil

NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.

In April, Spirit entered an area composed of three or more layers of soil with differing pastel hues hiding beneath a darker sand blanket. Scientists dubbed the site "Troy." Spirit's rotating wheels dug themselves more than hub deep at the site. The rover team has spent weeks studying Spirit's situation and preparing a simulation of this Martian driving dilemma to test escape maneuvers using an engineering test rover at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

A rock seen beneath Spirit in images from the camera on the end of the rover's arm may be touching Spirit's belly. Scientists believe it appears to be a loose rock not bearing the rover's weight. While Spirit awaits extraction instructions, the rover is keeping busy examining Troy, which is next to a low plateau called Home Plate, approximately 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) southeast of where Spirit landed in January 2004.

"By serendipity, Troy is one of the most interesting places Spirit has been," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is deputy principal investigator for the science payloads on Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "We are able here to study each layer, each different color of the interesting soils exposed by the wheels."

One of the rover's wheels tore into the site, exposing colored sandy materials and a miniature cliff of cemented sands. Some disturbed material cascaded down, evidence of the looseness that will be a challenge for getting Spirit out. But at the edge of the disturbed patch, the soil is cohesive enough to hold its shape as a steep cross-section.

Spirit has been using tools on its robotic arm to examine tan, yellow, white and dark-red sandy soil at Troy. Stretched-color images from the panoramic camera show the tints best.

"The layers have basaltic sand, sulfate-rich sand and areas with the addition of silica-rich materials, possibly sorted by wind and cemented by the action of thin films of water. We're still at a stage of multiple working hypotheses," said Arvidson. "This may be evidence of much more recent processes than the formation of Home Plate...or is Home Plate being slowly stripped back by wind, and we happened to stir up a deposit from billions of years ago before the wind got to it?"

Team members from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston feel initial readings suggest that iron is mostly present in an oxidized form as ferric sulfate and that some of the differences in tints at Troy observed by the panoramic camera may come from differences in the hydration states of iron sulfates.

While extraction plans for the rover are developed and tested during the coming weeks, the team plans to have Spirit further analyze the soil from different depths. This research benefits from having time and power. In April and May, winds blew away most of the dust that had accumulated on Spirit's solar panels.

"The exceptional amount of power available from cleaning of Spirit's solar arrays by the wind enables full use of all of the rover's science instruments," said Richard Moddis of the Johnson team. "If your rover is going to get bogged down, it's nice to have it be at a location so scientifically interesting."

The rover team has developed a soil mix for testing purposes that has physical properties similar to those of the soil under Spirit at Troy. This soil recipe combines diatomaceous earth, powdered clay and play sand. A crew is shaping a few tons of that mix this week into contours matching Troy's. The test rover will be commanded through various combinations of maneuvers during the next few weeks to validate the safest way to proceed on Mars.

Spirit's right-front wheel has been immobile for more than three years, magnifying the challenge. While acknowledging a possibility that Spirit might not be able to leave Troy, the rover team remains optimistic. Diagnostic tests on Spirit in early June provided encouragement that the left-middle wheel remains useable despite an earlier stall.

"With the improved power situation, we have the time to explore all the possibilities to get Spirit out," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity. "We are optimistic. The last time Spirit spun its wheels, it was still making progress. The ground testing will help us avoid doing things that could make Spirit's situation worse."

Images and further information about Spirit and Opportunity are available at: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

New instrument has potential to detect water deep underground on Mars

With the whoosh of compressed gas and the whir of unspooling wire, a team of Boulder scientists and engineers tested a new instrument prototype that might be used to detect groundwater deep inside Mars.

The Mars Time Domain Electromagnetic Sounder (MTDEM) uses induction to generate electrical currents in the ground, whose secondary magnetic fields are in turn detected at the planetary surface. In this way, the electrical conductivity of the subsurface can be reconstructed.

"Groundwater that has been out of atmospheric circulation for eons will be very salty," says the project's principal investigator Dr. Robert Grimm, a director in the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute. "It is a near-ideal exploration target for inductive systems."

The inductive principle of the MTDEM is distinct from the wavelike, surface-penetrating radars MARSIS and SHARAD presently orbiting Mars. "The radars have been very useful in imaging through ice and through very dry, low-density rock," says Grimm, "but they have not lived up to expectations to look through solid rock and find water."

The time-domain inductive method uses a large, flat-lying loop of wire on the ground to generate and receive electromagnetic signals. In order to do this robotically, the team developed a launch system that shoots two projectiles, each paying out spooled wire as they fly.

"The main challenge was getting the spooling right," says Robert Warden, a mechanical engineer at Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., which built the deployment system. "The spools had to be compact yet allow rapid payout of a thin wire at more than 30 meters per second (70 miles per hour)."

Data taken during the test launches allowed Warden and Grimm to scale the system for a flight mission. The MTDEM prototype deployed to a distance of more than 70 meters. For Mars, a system deploying a 200-meter loop would be less than 6 kilograms mass and could detect groundwater at depths up to 5 kilometers (3 miles). Most of the instrument's mass would be in the loop and deployment system. Barry Berdanier, the Ball electrical engineer who built the MTDEM electronics, estimates that the flight electronics would comprise just a few hundred grams.

"Electromagnetic induction methods are widely used in groundwater exploration," says James Pfieffer of Zapata Incorporated, a geophysical firm that provided field support. "We have been mapping groundwater in Hawaii for many years." The main field test of the MTDEM was on Maui, where known performance could be used to calibrate the new prototype.

Grimm adds, "Subsurface, liquid water on Mars could be a habitable zone for microbes. We know that huge volumes of discharged groundwater have shaped Mars' ancient surface. Is that water still locked inside?"

A Glowing Vision of the Early Universe

Galaxy formation in the early universe just became a little less mysterious.

Cosmologists already knew the big picture. In the several hundred million years after the Big Bang, matter in the expanding universe began falling together into clumps; littler clumps within the clumps fell in on themselves to form the first stars; and many of the original clumps eventually coalesced into bigger pools to make modern-sized galaxies.

But why did galaxies come out the size they did, rather than staying small or growing indefinitely huge? Astronomers have new insight on this question thanks to images obtained in 2007 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and released to the public today.

Scientists have known for nearly 10 years about gassy objects in the early universe called “Lyman-alpha blobs.” They’re named for their emission of ultraviolet light at the Lyman-alpha wavelength given off by hot hydrogen atoms. The energy to make the blobs light up must come from somewhere. In a paper to be published in the July 10th Astrophysical Journal, a team describes observing a region of Lyman-alpha blobs called SSA22 about a half million light-years in diameter. They say they have found why the blobs shine and have also turned up a correlation between the blobs and active black holes at the center of galaxies within them.

Massive black holes exist in most galaxies, but only some of the holes are consuming matter fast enough to light up brightly. Co-author Jim Geach (Durham University, UK) says 1% to 10% of galaxies in general have an active-black-hole nucleus, but the percentage is five times higher among the early galaxies with Lyman-alpha blobs surrounding them. These are large galaxies in the late stages of formation, seen when the universe was only about 15% of its present age. By then the holes in question had grown very massive, to roughly a billion solar masses.

Apparently, when we see a Lyman-alpha blob we are seeing the blaze from these black holes (and perhaps from nascent stars) heating a galaxy’s remaining gas and driving it off into intergalactic space, thereby preventing it from coalescing into new stars. In other words, we’re seeing galaxies at the point when they shut off their own growth.

Theorists modeling the early universe have been eager to observe this crucial “feedback” stage in galaxy evolution. The feedback mechanism explains the strong correlation between the mass of a galaxy’s central bulge of old stars and the mass of its central black hole (the ratio is always about 700 to 1). The growing flood of radiation from the growing black hole blows remaining gas out of the galaxy — both preventing the galaxy from forming new stars and preventing the hole’s further growth. (The gassy disk of a spiral galaxy, full of younger stars, would be the result of new material falling in later.)

This transition stage should be brief in cosmic terms, which is why it has been hard to catch in progress. But the research team suspects that nearly all galaxies should go through it.

New JPL Building Goes Green for the Gold

When residents of the top floors of JPL's new Flight Projects Center look out their windows down to the roof of the building's auditorium, they won't see black tar. Instead, they'll witness what looks more like Joshua Tree, Calif. -- desert, drought-resistant plants dotting sandy ground.

The plants do more than enhance the view; they are part of the building's many "green" features. In fact, the building is so green that JPL is going for the gold -- a gold certification, that is, under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, set up by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council.

The six-story Flight Projects Center will house missions in the busy design and development phases, when engineers and scientists from all around the world must work together closely. The first tenants are expected to move in this September.

To achieve a gold-level certification, the building must meet certain criteria. In general, it must consume water, energy and resources efficiently; treat the environment in friendly ways; and create a healthy and comfortable indoor workspace. Some of the building's green assets are listed here:

• A green, living roof will keep the building cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The green roof will also help minimize storm water runoff into the Arroyo Seco, a dry riverbed near JPL.

• Outdoor lights will be used solely for safety purposes. The lights are directed toward the ground, reducing the amount of light pollution that escapes to the night sky.

• Desert plants on the roof and the rest of the landscape will require 72 percent less water than a typical landscape design in Southern California.

• Low-flow faucets and toilets will reduce water use by 40 percent compared with typical fixtures. The building will save an estimated 500,000 gallons of water every year.

• Improved wall insulation, efficient chillers and boilers, window shading devices and the green roof will greatly reduce energy needs.

• More than 75 percent of the waste generated during construction was diverted from a landfill to a local recycling facility. Wood was acquired from Forest Stewardship Council certified suppliers, ensuring sustainable harvesting of trees.

• The paints and other surface materials have low levels of undesirable, toxic fumes.

• The heating and cooling system is "smart" -- it knows whether people are in a room and adjusts the temperature and ventilation accordingly.

• The janitorial staff will use green cleaning products and practices.

• Showers and bike racks will encourage people to leave their cars at home, and bike or walk to work.

More information about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system and the U.S. Green Building Council is online at http://www.usgbc.org .

Galaxies Coming of Age in Cosmic Blobs

The "coming of age" of galaxies and black holes has been pinpointed, thanks to new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. This discovery helps resolve the true nature of gigantic blobs of gas observed around very young galaxies.

About a decade ago, astronomers discovered immense reservoirs of hydrogen gas -- which they named "blobs" – while conducting surveys of young distant galaxies. The blobs are glowing brightly in optical light, but the source of immense energy required to power this glow and the nature of these objects were unclear.

A long observation from Chandra has identified the source of this energy for the first time. The X-ray data show that a significant source of power within these colossal structures is from growing supermassive black holes partially obscured by dense layers of dust and gas. The fireworks of star formation in galaxies are also seen to play an important role, thanks to Spitzer Space Telescope and ground- based observations.

"For ten years the secrets of the blobs had been buried from view, but now we've uncovered their power source," said James Geach of Durham University in the United Kingdom, who led the study. "Now we can settle some important arguments about what role they played in the original construction of galaxies and black holes." Galaxies are believed to form when gas flows inwards under the pull of gravity and cools by emitting radiation. This process should stop when the gas is heated by radiation and outflows from galaxies and their black holes. Blobs could be a sign of this first stage, or of the second.

Based on the new data and theoretical arguments, Geach and his colleagues show that heating of gas by growing supermassive black holes and bursts of star formation, rather than cooling of gas, most likely powers the blobs. The implication is that blobs represent a stage when the galaxies and black holes are just starting to switch off their rapid growth because of these heating processes. This is a crucial stage of the evolution of galaxies and black holes - known as "feedback" - and one that astronomers have long been trying to understand.

"We're seeing signs that the galaxies and black holes inside these blobs are coming of age and are now pushing back on the infalling gas to prevent further growth," said coauthor Bret Lehmer, also of Durham. "Massive galaxies must go through a stage like this or they would form too many stars and so end up ridiculously large by the present day."

Chandra and a collection of other telescopes including Spitzer have observed 29 blobs in one large field in the sky dubbed "SSA22." These blobs, which are several hundred thousand light years across, are seen when the Universe is only about two billion years old, or roughly 15% of its current age.

In five of these blobs, the Chandra data revealed the telltale signature of growing supermassive black holes - a point-like source with luminous X-ray emission. These giant black holes are thought to reside at the centers of most galaxies today, including our own. Another three of the blobs in this field show possible evidence for such black holes. Based on further observations, including Spitzer data, the research team was able to determine that several of these galaxies are also dominated by remarkable levels of star formation.

The radiation and powerful outflows from these black holes and bursts of star formation are, according to calculations, powerful enough to light up the hydrogen gas in the blobs they inhabit. In the cases where the signatures of these black holes were not detected, the blobs are generally fainter. The authors show that black holes bright enough to power these blobs would be too dim to be detected given the length of the Chandra observations.

Besides explaining the power source of the blobs, these results help explain their future. Under the heating scenario, the gas in the blobs will not cool down to form stars but will add to the hot gas found between galaxies. SSA22 itself could evolve into a massive galaxy cluster.

"In the beginning the blobs would have fed their galaxies, but what we see now are more like leftovers," said Geach. "This means we'll have to look even further back in time to catch galaxies and black holes in the act of forming from blobs."

These results will appear in the July 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu

NASA Scientists Bring Light to Moon's Permanently Dark Craters

A new lunar topography map with the highest resolution of the moon's rugged south polar region provides new information on some of our natural satellite's darkest inhabitants - permanently shadowed craters.

The map was created by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who collected the data using the Deep Space Network's Goldstone Solar System Radar located in California's Mojave Desert. The map will help Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission planners as they target for an encounter with a permanently dark crater near the lunar South Pole.

"Since the beginning of time, these lunar craters have been invisible to humanity," said Barbara Wilson, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and manager of the study. "Now we can see detailed topography inside these craters down to 40 meters [132 feet] per pixel, with height accuracy of better than 5 meters [16 feet]."

The terrain map of the moon's south pole is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/moon-20090618.html .

Scientists targeted the moon's south polar region using Goldstone's 70-meter (230-foot) radar dish. The antenna, three-quarters the size of a football field, sent a 500-kilowatt-strong, 90-minute-long radar stream 373,046 kilometers (231,800 miles) to the moon. Signals were reflected back from the rough-hewn lunar terrain and detected by two of Goldstone's 34-meter (112-foot) antennas on Earth. The roundtrip time, from the antenna to the moon and back, was about two-and-a-half seconds.

The scientists compared their data with laser altimeter data recently released by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kaguya mission to position and orient the radar images and maps. The new map provides contiguous topographic detail over a region approximately 500 kilometers (311 miles) by 400 kilometers (249 miles).

Funding for the program was provided by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about the Goldstone Solar System Radar and Deep Space Network is at http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn . More information about NASA's exploration program to return humans to the moon is at http://www.nasa.gov/exploration .

Magnetic field on bright star Vega

Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the first detection of a magnetic field on the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky. Using the high-sensitivity NARVAL spectropolarimeter installed at the Bernard-Lyot telescope (Pic du Midi Observatory, France), a team of astronomers detected the effect of a magnetic field (known as the Zeeman effect) in the light emitted by Vega.

Vega is a famous star among amateur and professional astronomers. Located at only 25 light years from Earth in the Lyra constellation, it is the fifth brightest star in the sky. It has been used as a reference star for brightness comparisons. Vega is twice as massive as the Sun and has only one tenth its age. Because it is both bright and nearby, Vega has been often studied but it is still revealing new aspects when it is observed with more powerful instruments. Vega rotates in less than a day, while the Sun's rotation period is 27 days. The intense centrifugal force induced by this rapid rotation flattens its poles and generates temperature variations of more than 1000 degrees Celsius between the polar (warmer) and the equatorial regions of its surface. Vega is also surrounded by a disk of dust, in which the inhomogeneities suggest the presence of planets.

This time, astronomers analyzed the polarization of light emitted by Vega and detected a weak magnetic field at its surface. This is really not a big surprise because one knows that the charged particle motions inside stars can generate magnetic fields, and this is how solar and terrestrial magnetic fields are produced. However, for more massive stars than the Sun, such as Vega, theoretical models cannot predict the intensity and the structure of the magnetic field, so that astronomers had no clue to the strength of the signal they were looking for. After many unsuccessful attempts in past decades, both the high sensitivity of NARVAL and the full dedication of an observing campaign to Vega have made this first detection possible.

The strength of Vega magnetic field is about 50 micro-tesla, which is close to that of the mean field on Earth and on the Sun. This first observational constraint opens the way to in-depth theoretical studies about the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. This detection also suggests that magnetic fields exist but have not been detected yet on many stars like Vega, but farther and more difficult to observe. Astronomers believe that this discovery will be a key step in understanding stellar magnetic fields and their influence on stellar evolution. As for Vega, it is now the prototype of a new class of magnetic stars and will definitely continue fascinating astronomers for years.

Supersonic Diving Quieting the Boom

Sonic booms are a part of life at Edwards Air Force Base and in surrounding communities, so booms generated on June 11 by two F/A-18s from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center went relatively unnoticed. The exception included several NASA and Gulfstream engineers monitoring boom recording and measuring devices located in the Air Force Flight Test Center's museum and at a seismometer located on base.

Called Sonic Booms On Big Structures, or SonicBOBS, Phase 0, these flights were preliminary calibration flights for an upcoming NASA study scheduled for September that is designed to gather sonic boom data on larger buildings.

The project is part of a NASA effort to characterize the effect of sonic booms on ground structures. It is part of the agency's sonic boom reduction technology research to help make overland supersonic cruise a reality.

“We recorded nine loud and quiet sonic booms with a variety of sensors, both inside and outside buildings," said Ed Haering, Dryden's principal investigator for the SonicBOBS project. "These data will be used to tailor the experiment design for September’s flights,” Haering said.

For the flights, the two NASA F-18s flew both straight supersonic flight profiles as well as a unique supersonic diving profile designed to present a quieter sonic boom to specific locations along their flight path. The F-18s flew in Edwards' High Altitude Supersonic Corridor at 32,000 to 40,000 feet for the supersonic runs.

SonicBOBS complements previous efforts in 2006 and 2007 to measure the pressure and loudness of sonic booms on both older-and newer-construction base housing.

Window rattle and other contact-induced acoustic sources are important aspects of the high frequency response inside a building subjected to sonic booms. The earlier base housing research showed that indoor noise from sonic booms might be more annoying than the same booms heard outdoors.

Currently, Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit supersonic flight over land except in special restricted military flight corridors. A resurgent interest in the last 10 years by aerospace companies in supersonic business jets that could cruise supersonically over land led to several research projects to shape and modify supersonic shockwaves. Among them, the Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstrator Project by NASA, Northrop Grumman and DARPA and the QuietSpike Project by NASA and Gulfstream both demonstrated the successful suppression of sonic boom intensity on the ground.

NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, Savannah, Ga., are partners with NASA Dryden and the Air Force Flight Test Center in the project. The effort is funded by the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate’s Supersonics Project, which supports NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics program strategy of developing systems level, multidiscipline capabilities for supersonic civilian and military applications.

NASA Lunar Mission Successfully Enters Moon Orbit

After a four and a half day journey from the Earth, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has successfully entered orbit around the moon. Engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., confirmed the spacecraft's lunar orbit insertion at 6:27 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

During transit to the moon, engineers performed a mid-course correction to get the spacecraft in the proper position to reach its lunar destination. Since the moon is always moving, the spacecraft shot for a target point ahead of the moon. When close to the moon, LRO used its rocket motor to slow down until the gravity of the moon caught the spacecraft in lunar orbit.

"Lunar orbit insertion is a crucial milestone for the mission," said Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard. "The LRO mission cannot begin until the moon captures us. Once we enter the moon's orbit, we can begin to buildup the dataset needed to understand in greater detail the lunar topography, features and resources. We are so proud to be a part of this exciting mission and NASA's planned return to the moon."

A series of four engine burns over the next four days will put the satellite into its commissioning phase orbit. During the commissioning phase each of its seven instruments is checked out and brought online. The commissioning phase will end approximately 60 days after launch, when LRO will use its engines to transition to its primary mission orbit.

For its primary mission, LRO will orbit above the moon at about 31 miles, or 50 kilometers, for one year. The spacecraft's instruments will help scientists compile high resolution, three-dimensional maps of the lunar surface and also survey it at many spectral wavelengths.

The satellite will explore the moon's deepest craters, examining permanently sunlit and shadowed regions, and provide understanding of the effects of lunar radiation on humans. LRO will return more data about the moon than any previous mission.

For more information about the LRO mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

SMOS and Proba-2 launch rescheduled for November

Following an agreement between ESA, Krunichev Space Centre and Eurockot Launch Services, ESA's next Earth Explorer mission SMOS and a secondary payload, the technology demonstrator Proba-2 satellite, will now launch on 2 November 2009.

The new November launch date follows a rescheduling of the previously announced date of 9 September. Both the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite and the secondary payload Proba-2, which is ESA's second Project for Onboard Autonomy mission, will be launched together on a Rockot launch vehicle from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. This type of rocket was also used to launch ESA's Earth Explorer Gravity Mission GOCE in March this year.

The SMOS satellite is currently in the south of France at Thales Alenia Space's premises, where it has been in storage for the past year. The all-important Flight Acceptance Review has already been passed, which signalled that all the elements that make up the mission are in place for launch, so the satellite is ready and waiting to be shipped to the launch site. ESA's SMOS Project Manager Achim Hahne said, "Since the launch date has been rescheduled for November to allow time for a Russian launch, we are now looking at September before we can start the launch campaign and start shipping the satellite and support equipment to the launch site in Russia. Although the delay is a little disappointing the team is very much looking forward to launch in November."

SMOS, or ESA's Water Mission as it is known, will make global observations of soil moisture over Earth's landmasses and salinity over the oceans. Through the use of a novel interferometric radiometer called MIRAS (Microwave Imaging Radiometer using Aperture Synthesis) developed by EADS CASA Espacio in Spain, the SMOS mission will provide global soil moisture maps at least every three days and maps of sea-surface salinity at least every thirty days. This will lead to a better understanding of the water cycle and, in particular, the exchange processes between Earth's surfaces and the atmosphere. Data from SMOS will help improve weather and climate models and also have practical applications in areas such as agriculture and water resource management.

Taking advantage of the launch, ESA's Proba-2, which is a very small satellite, is being carried into space at the same time as SMOS. Proba-2 is the second in ESA's series of small, low-cost satellites that are being used to validate new spacecraft technologies while also carrying scientific instruments. It serves as a testbed for new technologies and experiments to observe the Sun and do research into space weather.

NASA Awards Space Station Support Contract to ARES Corp.

NASA has signed a $144 million follow-on contract with ARES Corp. of Burlingame, Calif., for International Space Station Program integration and control services.

ARES will provide support for configuration management, data management, information technology, safety and mission assurance, vehicle integrated performance, resource and budget analysis, program schedule development, engineering and technical services, spacecraft integration, international partner integration and strategic analysis planning.

The three-year contract is effective Oct. 1, 2009 through Sept. 30, 2012, and includes two one-year options that could extend the contract through Sept. 30, 2014. If both options are exercised, the total value of the indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract would be $180 million.

ARES will perform the work on-site at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, or at nearby offices. Significant subcontractors include Barrios Technology and Booz-Allen Hamilton, both of Houston.

The previous contract was awarded in November 2003, and had a total value of $154 million, including all of the options that were exercised, through Sept. 30, 2009.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

New NASA Missions to Reach Moon Tuesday, Sending Back Live Video

Two NASA spacecraft will reach major mission milestones early Tuesday morning as they approach the moon -- one will send back live streaming imagery via the Internet as it swings by the moon, the other will insert itself into lunar orbit to begin mapping the moon's surface.

After a four and a half day journey to the moon, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will be captured by the moon's gravity and prepare for the commissioning phase of its mission on June 23. NASA TV live coverage of LRO's orbit insertion begins at 5:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday, with the actual engine burn to begin orbit insertion starting at 5:47 a.m.

In addition to animation and footage of LRO, live interviews will be broadcast from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., with Cathy Peddie, LRO deputy project manager at Goddard; Jim Garvin, Goddard chief scientist; Laurie Leshin, Goddard deputy director for Science and Technology; Mike Wargo, NASA's chief lunar scientist in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington; Rich Vondrak, LRO project scientist at Goddard; and Craig Tooley, LRO project manager at Goddard.

At 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, the Science Operations Center at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will stream live telemetry-based spacecraft animation and the visible camera images from the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, spacecraft as it swings by the moon before entering into a looping polar Earth orbit. Live video streaming via the Internet will last approximately one hour.

The live video streams of the LCROSS swingby will be available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/lunarswingby

The LCROSS swingby starts near the lunar south pole and continues north along the far side of the moon. The maneuver will put the LCROSS spacecraft and its spent second stage Centaur rocket in the correct flight path for the October impact near the lunar south pole. The swingby also will give the mission operations team the opportunity to practice the small trajectory correction maneuvers needed to target the permanently shadowed crater that will be selected by the LCROSS science team.

During the swingby, the science team will make measurements of the moon's surface and the lunar horizon to calibrate the spacecraft's cameras and spectrometers. The LCROSS visible spectrometer will make the first near-ultraviolet survey of the selected locations on the far-side of the moon giving scientists a unique look at the concentration of minerals and elements in the lunar soil.

LCROSS and its attached Centaur upper stage rocket separately will collide with the moon the morning of Oct. 9, 2009, creating a pair of debris plumes that will be analyzed for the presence of water ice or water vapor, hydrocarbons and hydrated materials.

The LRO and LCROSS missions are providing mission updates onTwitter at:

http://www.twitter.com/lro_nasa

and

http://www.twitter.com/lcross_nasa

For more information about NASA's LCROSS and LRO missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

and

http://www.nasa.gov/lcross

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA's Mars Odyssey Alters Orbit to Study Warmer Ground

NASA's long-lived Mars Odyssey spacecraft has completed an eight-month adjustment of its orbit, positioning itself to look down at the day side of the planet in mid-afternoon instead of late afternoon.

This change gains sensitivity for infrared mapping of Martian minerals by the orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System camera. Orbit design for Odyssey's first seven years of observing Mars used a compromise between what worked best for the infrared mapping and for another onboard instrument.

"The orbiter is now overhead at about 3:45 in the afternoon instead of 5 p.m., so the ground is warmer and there is more thermal energy for the camera's infrared sensors to detect," said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project scientist for Mars Odyssey.

Some important mineral discoveries by Odyssey stem from mapping done during six months early in the mission when the orbit geometry provided mid-afternoon overpasses. One key example: finding salt deposits apparently left behind when large bodies of water evaporated.

"The new orbit means we can now get the type of high-quality data for the rest of Mars that we got for 10 or 20 percent of the planet during those early six months," said Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, Tempe, principal investigator for the Thermal Emission Imaging System.

Here's the trade-off: The orbital shift to mid-afternoon will stop the use of one of three instruments in Odyssey's Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite. The new orientation will soon result in overheating a critical component of the suite's gamma ray detector. The suite's neutron spectrometer and high-energy neutron detector are expected to keep operating. The Gamma Ray Spectrometer provided a dramatic 2002 discovery of water-ice near the Martian surface in large areas. The gamma ray detector has also mapped global distribution of many elements, such as iron, silicon and potassium.

Last year, before the start of a third two-year extension of the Odyssey mission, a panel of planetary scientists assembled by NASA recommended the orbit adjustment to maximize science benefits from the spacecraft in coming years.

Odyssey's orbit is synchronized with the sun. Picture Mars rotating beneath the polar-orbiting spacecraft with the sun off to one side. The orbiter passes from near the north pole to near the south pole over the day-lit side of Mars. At each point on the Mars surface that turns beneath Odyssey, the solar time of day when the southbound spacecraft passes over is the same. During the five years prior to October 2008, that local solar time was about 5 p.m. whenever Odyssey was overhead. (Likewise, the local time was about 5 a.m. under the track of the spacecraft during the south-to-north leg of each orbit, on the night side of Mars.)

On Sept. 30, 2008, Odyssey fired thrusters for six minutes, putting the orbiter into a "drift" pattern of gradually changing the time-of-day of its overpasses during the next several months. On June 9, Odyssey's operations team at JPL and at Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems commanded the spacecraft to fire the thrusters again. This five-and-a-half-minute burn ended the drift pattern and locked the spacecraft into the mid-afternoon overpass time.

"The maneuver went exactly as planned," said JPL's Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey mission manager.

In another operational change motivated by science benefits, Odyssey has begun in recent weeks making observations other then straight downward-looking. This more-flexible targeting allows imaging of some latitudes near the poles that are never directly underneath the orbiter, and allows faster filling-in of gaps not covered by previous imaging.

"We are using the spacecraft in a new way," McSmith said.

In addition to extending its own scientific investigations, the Odyssey mission continues to serve as the radio relay for almost all data from NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Odyssey's new orbital geometry helps prepare the mission to be a relay asset for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, scheduled to put the rover Curiosity on Mars in 2012.

Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project. Investigators at Arizona State University operate the Thermal Emission Imaging System. Investigators at the University of Arizona, Tucson, head operation of the Gamma Ray Spectrometer. Additional science partners are located at the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the high-energy neutron detector, and at Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer.

For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey .

NASA Awards Two Small Explorer Development Contracts

NASA has selected two science proposals to be developed into full missions as part of the agency's Small Explorer, or SMEX, Program. The selections will implement projects that will study our sun and some of the most exotic objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and black holes.

Both missions will launch by 2015; the first could launch by the end of 2012. Mission costs will be capped at $105 million each, excluding the launch vehicle.

"These two missions demonstrate the value of the Small Explorer Program," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "For a relatively small investment, we'll see an amazing amount of science generated."

The two winning proposals are:

1. Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph. Principal Investigator Alan M. Title, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, Palo Alto, Calif.

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph mission will use a solar telescope and spectrograph to explore the solar chromospheres. This is a crucial region for understanding energy transport into the solar wind and an archetype for stellar atmospheres. Recent discoveries have shown the chromosphere is significantly more dynamic and structured than previously thought. The unique instrument capabilities, coupled with state of the art 3-D modeling, will explore this dynamic region in detail. The mission will greatly extend the scientific output of existing heliophysics spacecraft that follow the effects of energy release processes from the sun to Earth.

2. Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX. Principal Investigator Jean H. Swank, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Among the thousands of X-ray sources observed with prior and current X-ray satellites, only one astrophysical object, the Crab Nebula, has been measured in polarized X-rays. By providing an increase in sensitivity of more than 100 times, the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX mission will detect and measure the polarization of the X-rays emitted by some of the most energetic and enigmatic objects in the cosmos. These include ultra-dense neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes, which are the remains of the dying explosions of very hot, massive stars, and ultra-massive black holes at the centers of distant galaxies. By studying the changes with time and energy of their polarized X-ray emission, the mission will probe the bending of space and the curving of light in regions of extreme gravity near these objects.

The SMEX Program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for heliophysics and astrophysics missions using small- to mid-sized spacecraft. The program also seeks to raise public awareness of NASA's space science missions through educational and public outreach activities. The winning proposals are the 12th and 13th Small Explorer missions selected for flight.

Goddard manages the Explorer program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the program, visit:

http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Reschedules Test of Max Launch Abort System for June 25

Because of delays completing preliminary tests at the launch site, NASA has rescheduled the test launch of the Max Launch Abort System, or MLAS, to no earlier than June 25 at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The launch window will extend from approximately 5:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. EDT.

Because of the possibility of further schedule changes, news media representatives should contact Rebecca Powell at 757-824-1139 or Ashley Edwards at 202-358-1756 to confirm the exact date and time of the launch.

The unpiloted test is part of an effort to design a system for safely propelling future spacecraft and crews away from hazards on the launch pad or during the climb to orbit. This system was developed as an alternative concept to the launch abort system chosen for NASA's Orion crew capsule.

The 33-foot-high MLAS vehicle will be launched to an altitude of approximately one mile to simulate an emergency on the launch pad. A full-scale mockup of the crew capsule will separate from the launch vehicle and parachute into the Atlantic Ocean.

For more information about MLAS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/missions/mlas.html

For more information about the Constellation Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/constellation

JPL Wind Watcher Blows Into its Second Decade

NASA's Quick Scatterometer, or QuikScat, mission was conceived, developed and launched less than two years after the unexpected loss of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-1 spacecraft, which carried the NASA Scatterometer in June 1997. Just two years later, on June 19, 1999, the QuikScat spacecraft carrying JPL's SeaWinds instrument was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

Since its launch a decade ago, QuikScat has advanced Earth science research and helped improve environmental predictions using measurements of global radar backscatter from Earth’s ocean, land and ice surfaces. QuikScat data help scientists better understand and predict the processes that drive our climate, such as ocean circulation and the global water cycle.

QuikScat data have revolutionized operational weather and storm forecasting. According to Paul Chang, ocean winds science team lead at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service/Center for Satellite Applications and Research, Camp Springs, Md., "QuikScat observations are now used around the world to support operational forecasting and warning of phenomena ranging from tropical and extratropical cyclones, fronts, localized coastal wind events such as gap winds and sea conditions driven by winds, to sea and lake ice extent and motion. The 10 years of observations from the QuikScat mission have provided critical information for the monitoring, modeling, forecasting and research of the atmosphere, oceans and climate."

In addition to its numerous weather forecasting and climate research applications, QuikScat data also help monitor changes in Arctic sea ice and icebergs, as well as snow and soil moisture changes on land. QuikScat's reliability, quality, resolution, coverage and longevity have made it the only global ocean wind speed and direction data to date that are appropriate for climate studies.

QuikScat accurately measures the speed and direction of winds at the ocean surface over 90 percent of Earth's surface twice a day, providing data in areas not sampled by buoys and other wind platforms. The scatterometer works by measuring the strength of radar signals that are bounced back from the ocean surface. As wind speeds increase, they disturb the ocean surface, generating more small waves. These small waves reflect the radar energy toward the radar, resulting in a stronger reflection. This is similar to the way that wind blowing at the beach on a sunny day causes the ocean surface to sparkle.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., developed QuikScat and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. QuikScat's mission team includes personnel from JPL; NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.; the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder; and numerous principal investigators funded by NASA’s Ocean Vector Winds science team.

Follow Ocean Trends From Your Desktop With NASA’s 'Sea Level Viewer'

Heat from the oceans is a driving force of climate, and the best place to watch ocean heat circulate is from space. Now Internet users can access these data by using the Sea Level Viewer, an interactive visualization tool developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

"Sea level is an important type of climate data, already used by many scientists," said Randal Jackson, who produces NASA’s Global Climate Change website out of NASA JPL. "Our goal was to present it in a form that’s visual, interactive and accessible to the general public."

Since 1992 NASA and the French space agency CNES have operated satellites that measure the precise height of Earth's oceans. In 1992, TOPEX/Poseidon launched and it was followed by the Jason-1 satellite, launched in 2001. The Ocean Surface Topography Mission on the Jason-2 satellite launched in June 2008, as a follow-on mission to Jason-1. The sea level height reflects the amount of heat stored in the water which is extremely important in hurricane forecasting.

The NASA Sea Level Viewer provides users with an up-to-date look at recent ocean topography data, allowing them to explore a global view or watch videos explaining the impact of sea surface height on Earth's climate. The Sea Level Viewer is accessible through NASA’s Global Climate Change website, http://climate.jpl.nasa.gov.

On the Sea Level Viewer webpage, click on the "current" button to see a recent map of sea level data as collected by the Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites. The data are presented on a revolving globe, with clickable hot spots that explain recent trends. In the global view, white areas represent sea surface heights between 8 and 24 centimeters (3.1 to 9.4 inches) above normal, indicating warmer, expanded water. Dark areas represent sea surface heights between 8 and 24 centimeters below normal, indicating cooler water.

Users can also click to learn about noteworthy sea level phenomena in recent years, such as the extraordinary El Niño of 1997-1998, which played havoc with normal climate patterns. Other features include 2005's Hurricane Katrina, 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami, and 1999's La Niña event. There’s also information on how space-based observations are helping forecasters predict the strength and intensity of hurricanes.

Jet Streams Suspected of Triggering Sunspots

The sun is in the pits of a century-class solar minimum, and sunspots have been puzzlingly scarce for more than two years. Now, for the first time, solar physicists might understand why.

At an American Astronomical Society press conference this week in Boulder, Colorado, researchers announced that a jet stream deep inside the sun is migrating slower than usual through the star's interior, giving rise to the current lack of sunspots.

Rachel Howe and Frank Hill of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona, used a technique called helioseismology to detect and track the jet stream down to depths of 7,000 km below the surface of the sun. The sun generates new jet streams near its poles every 11 years, they explained to a room full of reporters and fellow scientists. The streams migrate slowly from the poles to the equator and when a jet stream reaches the critical latitude of 22 degrees, new-cycle sunspots begin to appear.

Howe and Hill found that the stream associated with the next solar cycle has moved sluggishly, taking three years to cover a 10 degree range in latitude compared to only two years for the previous solar cycle.

The jet stream is now, finally, reaching the critical latitude, heralding a return of solar activity in the months and years ahead.

"It is exciting to see", says Hill, "that just as this sluggish stream reaches the usual active latitude of 22 degrees, a year late, we finally begin to see new groups of sunspots emerging."

The current solar minimum has been so long and deep, it prompted some scientists to speculate that the sun might enter a long period with no sunspot activity at all, akin to the Maunder Minimum of the 17th century. This new result dispells those concerns. The sun's internal magnetic dynamo is still operating, and the sunspot cycle is not "broken."

Because it flows beneath the surface of the sun, the jet stream is not directly visible. Hill and Howe tracked its hidden motions via helioseismology. Shifting masses inside the sun send pressure waves rippling through the stellar interior. So-called "p modes" (p for pressure) bounce around the interior and cause the sun to ring like an enormous bell. By studying the vibrations of the sun's surface, it is possible to figure out what is happening inside. Similar techniques are used by geologists to map the interior of our planet.

In this case, researchers combined data from GONG and SOHO. GONG, short for "Global Oscillation Network Group," is an NSO-led network of telescopes that measures solar vibrations from various locations around Earth. SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, makes similar measurements from space.

"This is an important discovery," says Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "It shows how flows inside the sun are tied to the creation of sunspots and how jet streams can affect the timing of the solar cycle."

There is, however, much more to learn.

"We still don't understand exactly how jet streams trigger sunspot production," says Pesnell. "Nor do we fully understand how the jet streams themselves are generated."

To solve these mysteries, and others, NASA plans to launch the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) later this year. SDO is equipped with sophisticated helioseismology sensors that will allow it to probe the solar interior better than ever before.

"The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO will improve our understanding of these jet streams and other internal flows by providing full disk images at ever-increasing depths in the sun," says Pesnell.

Continued tracking and study of solar jet streams could help researchers do something unprecedented--accurately predict the unfolding of future solar cycles. Stay tuned for that!

Related Links:

> Sonograms of Sun Explain Missing Sunspots (American Astronomical Society/Solar Physics Division)
> Solar Dynamics Observatory (Goddard Space Flight Center)

Successful Spacecraft Separation

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, successfully separated from the Centaur upper stage and Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, spacecraft at 6:16:43 p.m. EDT.

The official transfer of control from the Centaur rocket to LCROSS is expected about 9:30 p.m.

LRO will reach the moon on Tuesday at 5:43 a.m.

LCROSS and the Centaur rocket will stay attached for the next four months. They will then separate and be directed to impact the moon on Oct. 9, UTC.

Mission News

3, 2, 1, Liftoff!

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Spacecraft are on their way to the moon atop the same Atlas V rocket, although they will use vastly different methods to study the lunar environment. LRO will go into orbit around the moon, turning its suite of instruments towards the moon for thorough studies. The spacecraft also will be looking for potential landing sites for astronauts.

LCROSS, on the other hand, will guide an empty upper stage on a collision course with a permanently shaded crater in an effort to kick up evidence of water at the moon's poles. LCROSS itself will also impact the lunar surface during its course of study.

Liftoff occurred at 5:32 p.m. EDT. Mission managers used the last launch opportunity due to storms surrounding the launch site.

Revered UCSB Instructor Dies at 71

UCSB professor and world-famous innovator in the field of human geography Reginald Golledge died at his home on Friday.

Affectionately known as “Reg” by friends and family, Golledge, 71, began teaching at UCSB in 1977 and helped found the fields of human and behavioral geography during his tenure at the university. Golledge - who was declared legally blind in the 1980s - helped create the Personal Guidance System, a device that helps blind people navigate.

According to Jack Loomis, a UCSB psychology professor and close friend, Golledge was a tremendous scholar.

“I know he was truly one of the great geographers of all time for the huge role he played in developing the field of behavioral geography,” Loomis said. “He did much to improve blind people’s access to spatial information.”

Golledge’s cause of death was not made public. However, Golledge was in poor health before his death. He had survived cancer five times and had been recently dealing with a heart condition.

UCSB geology professor Ed Keller said Golledge never allowed his blindness to interfere with his life. Despite the handicap, Keller said he was a competitive sportsman.

“He had a great sense of humor and loved darts - we won a tournament after he lost his sight!” Keller said. “I just had to head him in the right direction with a marker and advise Reg where the first dart landed. He made adjustments and we won the tournament. … Our opponent was so surprised he fell on the floor in shock and surprise.”

According to Bill Norrington, Golledge’s administrative assistant for over 10 years, Golledge was also an avid fisherman.

“His favorite hobby was fishing, and he was darn good at it, even after losing his sight,” Norrington said. “He often fished for trout at Lake Cachuma, and he invariably caught the most and the biggest. As the T-shirt says, ‘Women adore him; fish fear him!’”

As a professor, Golledge was highly decorated. UCSB’s Academic Senate recently named him Faculty Research Lecturer of 2009, its highest honor for a faculty member. Golledge had been scheduled to give a public lecture next fall as part of the award.

During his life, Golledge published dozens of books and articles on the field of human geography. Even after losing his eyesight, he remained a prolific writer. Through his assistants, Golledge was known to vigorously edit all his writing.

Golledge received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1966 and also held an honorary Ph.D. from Göteborg University in Sweden. Golledge was the chair of the UCSB geography department from 1980 to 1984.

Golledge is survived by his wife of 32 years, Allison, and his children Bryan, Brittany, Stephanie and Linda.

“He will be remembered as a truly caring and generous man,” Allison Golledge said. “He was a wonderful father, and he will be truly missed.”

A memorial service for Golledge will be held at 1 p.m. this Saturday at the UCSB Faculty Club.

Scientists Find That Squid's Bioluminescence Comes From Eye-Related Genes

Scientists have found that a small Hawaiian squid can hide itself by using an organ with the same genes found in its eye.

Using a process called bioluminescence, the squid can light up its underside to match the surrounding light from the sun. This disguises the squid in much the same way that it discharges black ink to cloak itself. The study was recently reported in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

The squid, commonly called Hawaiian Bobtail squid, has a light organ that is totally separate from the eyes. The new finding is that this organ is light sensitive and uses some of the same genes as the squid's eye.

Todd Oakley, an evolutionary biologist at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB), performed the evolutionary analysis of the genes of the squid. He confirmed that the genes in the light organ are similar or the same as those of the eye of the squid.

"This is significant because it is an example of how existing components can be used in evolution to make something completely new," said Oakley. "These components existed for use in the eye and then got recruited for use in the light organ. The light organ resembles an eye in a lot of ways. It has a lens for focusing the light. It has the shape of an eye, and now we found that it has the sensitivity of an eye as well."

Oakley explained that the analogy used is "evolutionary tinkering." "Evolution acts a lot like a tinkerer and assembles what's available to make something new," he said.

The scientists gathered the small squid in shallow water in Hawaii, after sunset, when they are active. "We scoop them up with a net," said Oakley. "Then we bring them back, and keep male and female pairs together. Then they have lots of young that we can study in the lab." The squid are located in a lab at the University of Wisconsin.

"The reason that the squid are bioluminescent is for camouflage," said Oakley. "You can imagine that if you were lying on the bottom of the ocean looking up, there is a lot of light coming from above. When the squid passes over, it would cast a shadow; it would be pretty conspicuous."

To camouflage itself, the squid matches the light behind it, using bioluminescence. It matches the surrounding light so that it does not cast a shadow.

The light is caused by bacteria that are housed in the squid. It harbors the bacteria and the bacteria themselves produce the light. The scientists confirmed that the squid can actually detect the light that it is producing, by confirming that many of the genes used in the eye are also used in the light organ.

The light comes from a chemical reaction that happens within the bacteria. The squid doesn't control the chemical reaction directly, but the squid can change its light organ to make it more or less open –– to let out more or less light, Oakley explained.

Other authors involved in this paper are Deyan Tong, Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Natalia S. Rozas, and Nansi J. Colley, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Another co-author is Jane Mitchell, of the University of Toronto.

World Day to Combat Desertification focuses on human security

Human security is under threat from desertification, land degradation and drought. Combating this threat requires an integrated international response, which is why the theme for this year's World Day to Combat Desertification is 'Conserving land and water = Securing our common future'.

Desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD) deprive people of food, water and their homes and can undermine security and even trigger conflicts. According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), these phenomena have already forced between 17 and 24 million to leave their homes and that number is expected to rise to 200 million by 2050.

In its effort to combat DLDD, the UNCCD is calling for the global creation of short-, medium- and long-term strategies to deal with the scarcity of fertile soil by strengthening ecosystem management through the use of technology, knowledge and engineering concepts.

The term 'desertification' does not refer to the spread of existing deserts, but to the creation of new ones through the degradation of drylands, which cover 40% of the world's land surface. Since dryland desertification can be remedied by using appropriate land management techniques, it is essential to monitor the areas most at risk.

ESA has been working closely with the UNCCD secretariat for more than eight years, developing and demonstrating information services based on satellite Earth observation (EO) technologies to allow a better assessment and monitoring of desertification and land degradation.

EO satellites are able to highlight relevant changes in land use and can provide authorities with an overall picture of key pressures on land, such as burned land due to forest fires, erosion processes and their trends over time.

In 2004, ESA launched a large pilot project called DesertWatch to develop a set of satellite-based information services to monitor and assess the status of land degradation with the support of four of the European countries most affected by desertification – Greece, Italy, Portugal and Turkey.

These satellite data were also combined with in-situ information, processing tools, models and geo-information systems to create standardised and comparable geo-information products that were also used to satisfy UNCCD reporting requirements.

ESA is currently preparing an extension to DesertWatch to review and adapt the methodology developed during the first project so it can be applied globally, for the benefit of all UNCCD Contracting Parties. The new methodology will be demonstrated in Portugal, Brazil and Mozambique.

ESA, through its TIGER initiative, is also supporting African countries to overcome water-related problems, such as drought, and to bridge gaps in information related to water through the use of EO technology. Under the first phase of TIGER, ESA provided more than 8500 satellite-based products free of charge to African researchers working on water-related research activities and management projects.

At the request of African water authorities, ESA has extended the initiative. TIGER II will support African efforts to develop sustainable observation systems by using EO technology that will help to establish a sound scientific basis for developing effective adaptation or mitigation measures against the impacts of climate change.

This year's official observance of the World Day to Combat Desertification is being held in Bonn, Germany. ESA will attend the ceremony to highlight the role of satellites in reversing desertification and land degradation.

S'COOL Sets Sail To Promote Ocean Health

A NASA program that has inspired children to study clouds on every continent but Antarctica has set sail to conquer new frontiers -- the oceans.

The Students Cloud Observations On-Line (S'COOL) program at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is teaming up with the Pacific Science Center and Sailors for the Sea for a 25,000-mile (40,234 km) sailing journey to raise awareness about the health of the world's oceans. The boat departed from Seattle early last week and the crew intends to sail all the way around North and South America. They head north first, and will take advantage of the drastic decline in summer Arctic sea ice to make around northern Canada -- the famed Northwest Passage, a route that's rarely been followed but is becoming easier because of the dramatic loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic.

Along the way, the crew of sailors and scientists on the 64-foot (19.5 m) vessel Ocean Watch will be taking measurements for eight different scientific endeavors while blogging about their trip and stopping at key ports to talk to people about the oceans. The trip will include stops in Resolute, Canada, one of the coldest places on Earth with a permanent human presence, and Puerto Williams, Chile, one of the southernmost cities in the world.

S'COOL works as both an educational tool for students and a validation tool for scientists with the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) satellite-based instruments. CERES measures the Earth's energy balance, the ever-changing flux of incoming and outgoing radiation that governs the climate. CERES makes mostly accurate observations of clouds, which play a key role in the energy balance, but S'COOL students offer a second opinion on those measurements. With S'COOL, a class of students goes outside at a given time and observes the type and number of clouds in the sky at that time, to correspond with CERES passing overhead. The students' observations are used to "ground-truth" what CERES recorded.

The program has expanded from an association with several schools near Langley Research Center to involve participants from more than 1,000 schools worldwide in the 12 years since its inception. S'COOL is growing in popularity in South America, and is particularly popular on that continent in Argentina, Chile and Colombia. The observations from the four-man Ocean Watch crew will mark the first time that cloud observations have been collected consistently from the open ocean for S'COOL. Students who want to follow the expedition can make their own observations and compare with Ocean Watch by using the S'COOL Rover Web site.

"This is a unique opportunity for S'COOL to get a collection of observations from sites in the ocean, as well as from interesting and remote locations along the Northwest Passage and other portions of the voyage," said S'COOL project manager and NASA Langley climate research scientist Lin H. Chambers.

In 31 scheduled ports of call along the 13-month voyage, the crew and other visiting scientists and ocean-related professionals will set up an open house for the public to visit. The trip's goal is to highlight threats to the oceans such as unsustainable fishing and climate change-related concerns such acidification caused by too much carbon dioxide in the water, which is destroying fragile coral reefs, and the loss of Arctic ice.

"North and South America are surrounded by a large, complex, and frighteningly fragile ocean environment -- and these oceans are changing in large part as a result of human activity," said David Rockefeller Jr., Sailors for the Sea founder. "The goal of this expedition is to build broad awareness among everyday citizens of the precipitous changes occurring throughout the world's oceans and the impact these changes have on various ecosystems and human life."

Science projects on-board, in addition to S'COOL, include a survey of jellyfish, which are being seen in blooms in coastal waters thought to be an effect of stress on oceans as a result of climate change. The crew will also deploy a buoy in the Arctic ice that measures air pressure and sea surface temperature. Its location, along with a fleet of other buoys, can be tracked by satellite to provide information on ice movement. Scientists affiliated with the voyage will also: collect fundamental oceanographic data such as seawater pH and temperature; deploy a hydrophone to record marine mammal sounds; study the frequency and occurrence of whitecaps to evaluate how breaking waves play a role in the air-sea transfer of heat and energy and produce natural aerosols; and use a hand-held photometer to study solar reflection by aerosols, data not typically collected at sea that will be used to ground-truth NASA satellite measurements.

But perhaps the most striking facet of the journey is the plotted route. The crew will have a short window of time in mid August to make the once-fabled, now real Northwest Passage. The warming Arctic and declining summer ice make this possible. The idea of a North and South America circumnavigation as an awareness tool was made all the more powerful by the ability to take a route that didn't exist, as open water, not so long ago.

"Ten years ago this wouldn't have been possible," said Kris Ludwig, an oceanographer and project manager at the Pacific Science Center who is helping coordinate the Around the Americas trip. "They hear 'Northwest Passage' and at first people say, 'That's really cool!' Then it dawns on them. You can see the change on their face."

Scientists Search for a Pulse in Skies Above Earthquake Country

NASA Gives California's San Andreas, Other Faults a 3-D Close-up

Story Highlights
• New NASA 3-D airborne radar to study California's earthquake faults.
• Radar sees below the surface to measure buildup and release of strain along faults.
• Data can be used to guide rescue and damage assessment efforts after a quake.
• LA basin, San Francisco Bay among areas to be studied.

When a swarm of hundreds of small to moderate earthquakes erupted beneath California's Salton Sea in March, sending spasms rumbling across the desert floor, it set off more than just seismometers. It also raised the eyebrows of quite a few concerned scientists. The reason: lurking underground, just a few kilometers to the northeast, lays a sleeping giant: the 160-kilometer-(100-mile) long southern segment of the notorious 1,300-kilometer- (800-mile) long San Andreas fault. Scientists were concerned that the recent earthquake swarm at the Salton Sea's Bombay Beach could perhaps be the straw that broke the camel's back, triggering "the big one," a huge earthquake that could devastate Southern California.

The southern end of the San Andreas has remained silent, at least for now. But the earthquake swarm and more recent, widely felt earthquakes in the Los Angeles area have stirred renewed interest in earthquake research. A multi-year project currently under way at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is seeking to improve our understanding of these mysterious and sometimes deadly natural hazards by using a groundbreaking, JPL-developed airborne radar to study earthquake processes along the San Andreas and other California faults.

The 'Mother of California Faults'

Formed 15 to 20 million years ago, the San Andreas has defined California's seismic history and dramatically altered its landscape. It serves as the boundary between the two massive tectonic plates upon which the Golden State rides: the Pacific and North American plates.

Grinding horizontally past each other in a roughly north-south direction at up to 3.5 centimeters (1.4 inches) a year, the fault is a battle zone of pulverized rock, extending to depths of at least 16 kilometers (10 miles). In some places, the plates "creep" quietly past each other, producing small to moderate earthquakes, in a process known as aseismic creep.

But other parts of the fault get "stuck." They lock in place for sometimes hundreds of years before eventually releasing their pent-up frustrations in epic lunges, such as those responsible for the large magnitude 7.9 earthquakes that struck a then sparsely populated Southern California near Fort Tejon in 1857, and San Francisco in 1906.

From San Luis Obispo south to the Cajon Pass near San Bernardino, the San Andreas forms a largely unbroken line that is often clearly visible from the ground and air. South of Cajon Pass, however, the fault zone becomes more complex. Here, several different faults share the "burden" of moving the tectonic plates, including the San Andreas and the parallel and intersecting San Jacinto and southern San Andreas faults, among others. North of San Luis Obispo, the fault zone similarly splits into nearly parallel faults, with the Hayward and Calaveras faults sharing the plate motion with the San Andreas in the San Francisco Bay area.

Paleoseismological studies dating back 1,500 years have shown that large earthquakes occur on the southern San Andreas about every 250 to 300 years, on average. Yet the extreme southern segment of the fault hasn't budged for about 320 years. It is apparently overdue, primed for another large event.

Last year, the United States Geological Survey estimated that such a large earthquake, originating near the Salton Sea and rupturing the ground northward to near Lake Hughes in Los Angeles County, could devastate an eight-county region, killing up to 1,800, injuring 50,000, displacing a quarter million people, significantly damaging 300,000 buildings and causing an estimated $213 billion in damage.

Searching for Clues From Above and Below

Like doctors assessing the health of a patient, scientists use a broad array of tools to "listen" to the San Andreas and other faults, looking for clues about their past, present and future behavior. They dig trenches across faults, and place instruments, such as seismographs, creep meters and stress meters, into the ground to try to detect any changes that might be occurring above or below Earth's surface.

Increasingly, they also rely on space-based technologies, such as those being developed at JPL. Space-based instruments can image minute Earth movements to within a few centimeters (fractions of an inch), measuring the slow buildup of deformation along faults and mapping ground deformation after earthquakes occur. Among these tools are the Global Positioning System and interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR.

Until recently, the only InSAR data available for the San Andreas and other California faults have come from European Space Agency, Canadian and Japanese radar satellites. But those satellites aren't dedicated to or optimized for studying earthquakes, and the availability of their data is limited.

A New 3-D Radar Tool

Now, JPL scientists have added a new airborne radar tool to their arsenal. Called the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, this L-band wavelength radar flies aboard a modified NASA Gulfstream III aircraft from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The compact, reconfigurable radar, housed in a pod under the aircraft's fuselage, uses pulses of microwave energy to detect and measure very subtle deformations in Earth's surface, such as those caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and glacier movements.

UAVSAR works like this: flying at a nominal altitude of 13,800 meters (45,000 feet), the radar collects data over a selected region. It then flies over the same region again, minutes to months later, using the aircraft's advanced navigation system to precisely fly over the same path to an accuracy of within 4.6 meters (15 feet). By comparing these camera-like images, called interferograms, over time, scientists can measure the slow surface deformations involved with the buildup and release of strain along earthquake faults.

(UAVSAR is currently wrapping up a two-month expedition in Greenland and Iceland to study the flow of glaciers and ice streams. See http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-075 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=2156 ).

'Mowing the Lawn'

Last November, JPL scientists began conducting a series of UAVSAR flights over regions of Northern and Southern California that are actively deforming and are marked by frequent earthquakes. About every six months for the next several years, the scientists will precisely repeat the same flight paths to produce interferograms. From these data, 3-D maps will be created for regions of interest, including the mighty San Andreas and other California faults, extending from the Mexican border to Santa Rosa in the northern San Francisco Bay. Last month, the scientists completed their first full map of the San Andreas. Some regions, such as Parkfield on the central San Andreas, and the Hayward fault, have already had more than one flyover.

"We'll be 'mowing the lawn,' so to speak, mapping the San Andreas and adjacent faults, segment by segment, and then periodically repeating the same radar observations," said Andrea Donnellan, one of three JPL principal investigators on the UAVSAR fault mapping project, and program area lead for Natural Disasters in NASA Headquarters' Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

"By comparing these repeat-pass radar observations, we hope to measure any crustal deformations that may occur between observations, allowing us to 'see' the amount of strain building up in the San Andreas and adjoining faults,” Donnellan said. “This will give us a much clearer picture of which faults are active and at what rates they're moving, both before earthquakes and after them."

Donnellan said the UAVSAR fault mapping data will substantially improve our knowledge of regional earthquake hazards in California. "The 3-D UAVSAR data will allow scientists to bring entire faults into focus, allowing them to see the faults not just at their surfaces, but also at depth," she said. "When integrated into computer models, the data should give scientists a much clearer picture of California's complex fault systems, such as those in the Los Angeles basin and in the area around the Salton Sea."

The scientists will estimate the total displacement occurring in each region. As more observations are collected, they expect to be able to determine how strain is partitioned between individual faults. They'll also be able to measure ground signals caused by human activities, such as pumping water into or out of the ground or drilling for oil.

The UAVSAR flights will serve as a baseline for pre-earthquake activity. Should earthquakes occur during the course of this project, the team will measure the deformation at the time of the earthquakes to determine the distribution of slip on the faults, and then monitor longer-term motions after the earthquakes to learn more about fault zone properties.

"Airborne UAVSAR mapping can allow a rapid response after an earthquake to determine what fault was the source and which parts of the fault slipped during the earthquake," said Eric Fielding, another JPL principal investigator on the UAVSAR project. "Information about the earthquake source can be used to estimate what areas were most affected by the earthquake shaking to guide rescue and damage assessment response."

The UAVSAR data will also be used to test the earthquake forecasting methodology developed by UC Davis scientist John Rundle under NASA's QuakeSim project (see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2003/-074 ). The experiment identifies regions that have a high probability for earthquakes in the near future.

Mapping Faults from the Salton Sea to Santa Rosa

Donnellan's research will focus on Southern California between the Salton Sea and the Pacific coast, along with the Los Angeles basin, the seismically active Transverse Ranges (the east-west-oriented mountain ranges located between San Diego and Santa Barbara), and the San Francisco Bay area up through Santa Rosa.

Meanwhile, JPL colleagues Paul Lundgren and Zhen Liu will focus on the central San Andreas fault between the Bay Area and Los Angeles. This area is a transition zone between the creeping part of the fault north of the Parkfield segment, which has experienced fairly regular moderate earthquakes of around magnitude 6, and the Carrizo Plain segment, which ruptured in the 1857 Fort Tejon earthquake. They will also integrate UAVSAR with GPS and satellite InSAR data to form more complete models of how the fault slips over time.

JPL's Eric Fielding will focus on the Hayward fault along the east side of San Francisco Bay, identified as having the highest risk of a damaging earthquake in the Bay Area. The Hayward fault creeps in some parts, but also ruptured in a magnitude 6.8 to 7.0 earthquake in 1868 that caused extensive damage due to its location in the heart of the Bay Area. Fielding will analyze this creep to determine how much of the fault's overall motion is being released gradually, without large earthquakes, and estimate how much of the fault has accumulated stress since the 1868 quake that could rupture again. From these data, Fielding's team hopes to develop models of how stress and strain is evolving on the fault system and infer properties of the fault zone.

"Previous studies of the Hayward fault using satellite InSAR were limited by fixed satellite orbits and shorter radar wavelengths that only provided useful measurements in the urbanized areas of the San Francisco Bay," said Fielding. "UAVSAR will give us a complete picture of the 3-D deformation and map much finer details than are possible from space."

Initial science results from the UAVSAR fault mapping project will be available some time after the second round of mapping flights are completed. In the meantime, the science team is busy constructing computer models to compare with the actual UAVSAR data once they become available.

What's Next?

Donnellan said UAVSAR is also serving as a flying testbed to evaluate the tools and technologies for future space-based radars, such as those planned for a NASA mission currently in formulation called the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice, or DESDynI. That mission, which will study hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, as well as global environmental change, will use both a light detection and ranging sensor, or lidar, and an L-band radar that is very similar to UAVSAR's but with a much wider ground swath. DESDynI will be capable of providing repeat-pass interferometric data every eight days.

Once DESDynI is in orbit, UAVSAR will be used to calibrate its data and will complement its measurements by filling in gaps in its coverage.

"The Earth science community is anxiously awaiting the launch of DESDynI in a few years," Donnellan said. "In the meantime, UAVSAR data will give us a head start on better understanding California's complex fault systems. Its data will also help state and local governments mitigate losses from future earthquakes, including the inevitable 'big one' we all know is in our future."

To learn more about UAVSAR, visit: http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov .

To learn more about other ongoing JPL earthquake research programs, visit: http://quakesim.jpl.nasa.gov/ . Results of an earlier InSAR study of deformation in the San Francisco Bay Area by Fielding are available at http://www-radar.jpl.nasa.gov/CrustalDef/san_fran/index.html .

# LRO/LCROSS Launch Date Set

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite are set to lift off together aboard an Atlas V rocket on Thursday, June 18, at 5:12 p.m. EDT. Two additional launch opportunities are available at 5:22 p.m. and 5:32 p.m.

In preparation for liftoff, the Atlas V launch vehicle is scheduled to roll out to the pad Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Countdown milestones can be found on NASA's Launch Blog beginning at 2 p.m. EDT.

Atlas V Rolls to Launch Pad

Mission Overview

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Spacecraft will fly to the moon atop the same Atlas V rocket, although they will use vastly different methods to study the lunar environment. LRO will go into orbit around the moon, turning its suite of instruments towards the moon for thorough studies. The spacecraft also will be looking for potential landing sites for astronauts.

LCROSS, on the other hand, will guide an empty upper stage on a collision course with a permanently shaded crater in an effort to kick up evidence of water at the moon's poles. LCROSS itself will also impact the lunar surface during its course of study.

Liftoff currently is scheduled for June 18 at 5:12 p.m. EDT. There are two more launch opportunities that day at 5:22 p.m. and 5:32 p.m.

Additional Resources
› LRO Fact Sheet
› LRO/LCROSS Press Kit
› LRO/LCROSS Launch Coverage Events

Africa to pay for Europe's "green policies"

In efforts to make quick and symbolic gains in Europe's otherwise failed policies to curb climate gas emissions, environmental and anti-globalisation politicians are aiming at Africa's few economic success stories. Campaigns to buy locally produced food and travel to local destinations particularly hit out against African products. Consumers in Europe are again growing more environmentally conscious and are willing to use their purchasing power to assist in what is widely seen as our era's most pressing problems - the overspending of energy and global warming. Meanwhile, European politicians have been those pressuring strongest to gain support for the Kyoto Protocol while having totally failed to lower emissions of climate gases in their own countries. In every country, emissions have steadily increased.

Populist solutions that are to satisfy costumers, politicians and the European industry alike are therefore surfacing all over Africa's neighbour continent and the main market of its products. And the solutions seem neat and nice - easy to understand and with the potential of creating more work locally. Even the industry starts propagating these solutions.

The victim mainly is Africa, because the message is that, as longer as a product or person is transported, the more energy is wasted unnecessarily. Worst of all is airborne transport, having the highest emissions of climate gases such as CO2. Unluckily, Africa is far away from European markets and poor transcontinental infrastructure puts most products and travellers on an airplane.

All over Europe, therefore, home-grown campaigns are being promoted, attacking Africa's newest and most successful export products. Anti-globalisation activists, "green" politicians, local industry and even occasional experts and scientists head these "buy local" campaigns.

One of the latest campaigns is being launched in Germany, Europe's most populous state and biggest single market. The campaign goes "Sylt instead of Seychelles", referring to a fragile German North Sea island with an overstretched and environmentally damaging tourism industry. Tourism and climate expert Dr Manfred Stock developed the slogan and told the daily newspaper 'Berliner Zeitung' that consumers worrying about global warming should avoid intercontinental flights and rather take the train to a German or European destination.

The much-quoted researcher is in line with policies promoted by Germany's Federal Environment Agency (UBA). UBA President Dr Andreas Troge has made the climate change issue his agency's foremost focus, and one of the ways consumers could "do something on your own" is by changing their travel behaviour, UBA says. A single traveller flying to an intercontinental destination produces more than five tonnes of CO2, he told the German press, while someone travelling by train within Germany only had the emission of ten of kilograms of CO2 to account for.

Some even go further and have started penalising air travellers. In Norway, flyers have started paying for their CO2 emissions. So far, only domestic flights are penalised to make sure Norwegian airliners are not losing out in competition with other companies on international flights. But Norway is among many countries working for a CO2 tax on world-wide flights, which of course in particular would make long distance flights much more expensive.

This comes as most African states are investing massively in their nascent tourism industry and as Africa is surfacing as a modern and exciting travel destination in most Western markets. Some sub-Saharan states, in particular Seychelles, Mauritius, Cape Verde and The Gambia, already see tourism as their greatest foreign exchange earners. In Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, the travel industry by now is a vibrant success, while newcomers as Mozambique, Ethiopia, Gabon and Burkina Faso pin great investments and development hopes to the industry.

Ironically, much of Africa's new tourist destinations are focusing on eco-tourism, searching for modes that can guarantee the protection and good management of wildlife and habitats and local community development based on the new tourism revenues. In Gabon and Madagascar, vast landscapes have bee protected to be able to promote eco-tourism. No measure in African history has proven so successful in stopping tree cutting and forest conservation than prospects of tourism revenues.

Mature markets like Seychelles, Mauritius and South Africa are already world leaders when it comes to conservation and management, knowing that their tourism industry depends on a sound nature.

At the same time, African destinations like Seychelles are demonised as anti-environmental by European "experts". If successful, these campaigns could have a severe effect on the European market, which for the first time is experiencing a positive image of Africa as a must-see travel destination.

But also other African success stories are threatened by this new "stay local" trend. During the last decade, African agricultural products are increasingly admitted into the protectionist European market, even when also produced in Europe. This includes beef from Namibia and Botswana, fresh flowers, fruit and vegetables from Kenya and even processed food products from South Africa and Ghana.

None of the few African countries that have managed to enter European markets with agricultural products that compete with local producers have had an easy path reaching their position. Food quality and hygiene standards in Europe are extremely rigid and to a large degree designed to exclude foreign competition. To be able to reach sceptical European consumers, African producers mostly also have been obliged to follow strict environmental and social guidelines.

Also, African food products for years had to fight against false prototypes promoted by seemingly well-meaning anti-globalisation activists that to a great degree were funded by local farmer organisations. Development specialists - who do not get much air-time in European media - had to explain on and on again that European consumers were not "stealing food from starving Africans" when buying their products, but that these imports indeed would promote wealth and empowerment in rural Africa.

But in country after country, also these hard-bought gains are now under attack. Britain is the country where consumers so far have had the strongest focus on how far the food basket has travelled before reaching supermarkets. "Fresh vegetables from Africa" have for several years been one of the main focuses of environmental and anti-globalisation activists. They have even produced research claiming that the further foods have travelled, "the more their vitamin and mineral content deteriorates."

Already in 2003, airlifted baby carrots and garden peas from South Africa were highlighted in energy budgets of imported foods. For carrots, "it will have taken 68 calories of energy in the form of fuel to air freight each calorie of carrot energy," while "fresh peas require approximately two and half times the energy to produce, package and distribute as those sourced locally," the British daily 'Guardian' reported. South African wine, which is mostly shipped, however was praised for its "tiny" CO2 emissions. Of all the African products scrutinised, only wine is not produced Britain.

Years of campaigning against African agricultural products in the UK - whose funding has yet to be revealed - has already left its mark on British consumers. The easy-selling "fact" that locally produced vegetables, meat, flowers and fruits are more environmentally fit than African imports has made many consumers look for "low emission products".

That this trend is significant was demonstrated by a surprise marketing campaign by Britain's largest supermarket chain, Tesco, in February 2007. The retailer was to introduce "carbon counting" labelling tolet consumers see for themselves how far their food basket had travelled and how much CO2 emissions had been needed Tesco is one of the main channels for Kenyan products to European consumers - indeed half of Kenya's agricultural exports go to Britain. Naturally, the surprise marketing stunt caused frustrations at the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK), which had not been consulted on the move. While Tesco promised to keep on importing Kenyan products, "carbon counting" labels on these goods from 2008 will tell a one-sided story to British consumers.

From Britain, this trend is spreading to all over Western Europe. In Sweden, the leading daily 'Aftonbladet' attacked local supermarkets for not following Tesco's example "despite the fact that one fourth of climate gases emitted by Swedes originate from our food." Ecologist Annika Carlsson-Kanyama enthusiastically helped the Swedish daily to make a parallel guide for consumers, where "airborne tropical fruits" were labelled as no-goes for conscious consumers.

In other countries, old arguments against food imports from Africa are resurfacing. In the programme of Nature and Youth, one of the environment groups gaining most media attention in Norway, new and old "facts" are mixed: "Locally produced food is more environmental, safe and solidary," it says, claiming solidarity with African producers "for not spending the resources of others." Norway is a main importer of Namibian beef.

While the great focus on "environmentally damaging" food imports from Africa and flights to Africa is even increasing, less and less attention is given to the positive environmental balance of this trade. Forgotten is the fact that almost 100 percent of input factors in African agriculture are locally made and almost no machinery is used in production, while European farmers import fertilisers, pesticides, seeds, seasonal workers and oil-consuming machineries from all over the world.

Forgotten is also the fact that food exports and tourist destination developments empower Africans to protect and manage their environment and even reduce African-induced CO2 emissions. Eco-tourism has greatly promoted the protection of forests, mangroves, savannas and coral reefs in Africa - which also are key environs when it comes to storing CO2. A larger and more diversified food production in Africa also reduces the dependence on imports to supply African consumers.

And the greatest irony of all is that, while imports from Africa again are demonised, exports from Europe to Africa causing the same CO2 emissions are promoted as ever before. Subsidies are paid to promote the consumption of Spanish biscuits, French dairy products, European wheat instead of local staple foods, European tropical fruit juices, trawler caught fish dishes and, of course, all kind of industrial products.

Even Tesco, being concerned about CO2 emissions of transported foods, shows its real face when it comes to exporting from Europe.

Only two weeks before its much-publicised marketing campaign on "carbon counting" labels, the UK retailer issued a less-publicised statement. It announced the opening of ten supermarkets in China, where it will be selling popular European grocery products. Political support in Beijing was bought by promising to buy Chinese products worth euro 3.3 billion annually for exports.

In China, Tesco meets competition from the giant chains Carrefour of France and Metro of Germany, already assuring a European export of products and lifestyle to the world's fastest growing market. Who would come up with a silly idea of starting to count CO2 emissions when Europe's super retailers are taking up competition with America's Wal-Mart, thus promoting French, German and British products among China's 1.3 billion inhabitants?

Fuel Leak Again Postpones Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA postponed the launch of space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission Wednesday because of a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the shuttle’s external fuel tank.

Endeavour's next launch opportunity is July 11. This date comes after the end of an orbital sun-angle condition called a beta angle cut-out, which occurs between June 22 and July 10. The cut-out creates a thermal condition that prohibits shuttle and space station docked operations.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-127

The gaseous hydrogen venting system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad. Wednesday's leak is similar to one that prevented Endeavour's launch on June 13.

The 16-day mission to the International Space Station will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

Mission Commander Mark Polansky, who has a Twitter account named Astro_127, can be followed online at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_127

For information about NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about the STS-127 mission and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA Sets Coverage for Goes-O Launch on June 26

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-O, or GOES-O, is scheduled for a liftoff on Friday, June 26, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The one-hour launch window extends from 6:14 to 7:14 p.m. EDT. GOES-O is the second of three in the current series of geostationary weather and environmental satellites.

NASA will provide television, Internet and photo coverage of the launch starting with a prelaunch news conference at 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center news center.

Participants in the June 25 prelaunch news conference will be:
- Gary Davis, director, Office of Systems Development, NOAA Satellite and Information Service, Suitland, Md.
- Andre Dress, GOES-O deputy project manager, Goddard Space Flight Center
- Bart Hagemeyer, meteorologist in charge, NOAA National Weather Service forecast office, Melbourne, Fla.
- Ken Heinly, director, launch products and services, Boeing Launch Services, Huntington Beach, Calif.
- Charlie Maloney, GOES-O program manager, Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, Seal Beach, Calif.
- Joel Tumbiolo, Delta IV launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station - Kris Walsh, Commercial Programs manager, United Launch Alliance, Houston

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., was responsible for designing and developing the GOES-O spacecraft and its instruments for NOAA. Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems built GOES-O for NASA. It will be launched into orbit for NASA aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket procured by Boeing Launch Services.

NASA Television will carry the prelaunch news conference on the public channel. On launch day, June 26, NASA TV countdown coverage will begin on the media channel at 4 p.m. and will conclude 30 minutes after liftoff. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Audio only of the prelaunch news conference and the launch coverage will be carried on the NASA "V" circuits which may be accessed by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, -1260 and -7135. On launch day, "Mission Audio," the launch conductor's countdown activities without NASA TV launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135 starting at noon. Launch also will be available on local amateur VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz heard within Brevard County.

Prelaunch and launch day coverage of the GOES-O mission will be available on the NASA Web site at:

http://www.nasa.gov

Live countdown coverage on NASA's launch blog begins at 4 p.m. on June 26. Coverage features real-time updates of countdown milestones, as well as streaming video and podcast of launch. For more information, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/goes-o

For further information about GOES-O's launch coverage, contact the Kennedy Space Center news center at 321-867-2468.

Meteorite grains divulge Earth's cosmic roots

The interstellar stuff that became incorporated into the planets and life on Earth has younger cosmic roots than theories predict, according to Philipp Heck at the University of Chicago, and his international team.

Heck and his colleagues examined 22 interstellar grains from the Murchison meteorite. Dying Sun-like stars flung the Murchison grains into space more than 4.5 billion years ago, before the birth of the solar system. Scientists know the grains formed outside the solar system because of their exotic composition.

"The concentration of neon, produced during cosmic-ray irradiation, allows us to determine the time a grain has spent in interstellar space," Heck said. His team determined that 17 of the grains spent somewhere between 3 million and 200 million years in interstellar space, far less than the theoretical estimates of approximately 500 million years. Only three grains met interstellar duration expectations (two grains yielded no reliable age).

"The knowledge of this lifetime is essential for an improved understanding of interstellar processes, and to better contain the timing of formation processes of the solar system," Heck said. A period of intense star formation that preceded the Sun's birth may have produced large quantities of dust, thus accounting for the timing discrepancy, according to the research team.

Endeavour Fueling Continues

Space shuttle Endeavour's external fuel tank is being filled with more than 500,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The three-hour operation began at 11:04 p.m. EDT. The Liquid Hydrogen Low Level Cutoff (LLCO) sensors will go "wet" at about 11:49 p.m. The tank will be completely filled, known as stable replenish, at about 2:04 a.m.

The launch countdown currently is holding at T-3 hours, which will last until 1:45 a.m. EDT.

There still is a 80 percent chance that weather will not affect the 5:40 a.m. launch of STS-127.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-127

STS-127 Mission Overview
The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.3 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (484KB PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew
› Flow Valve Fact Sheet (447 Kb PDF)

European satellites probe a new magnetar

On Aug. 22, 2008, NASA's Swift satellite reported multiple blasts of radiation from a rare object known as a soft gamma repeater, or SGR. Now, astronomers report an in-depth study of these eruptions using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton and International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellites.

The object, designated SGR 0501+4516, was the first of its type discovered in a decade and is only the fifth confirmed SGR. "Some sources are extremely active, but others can be quiet for a decade or more," said Nanda Rea, University of Amsterdam, who led the study. "This suggests many members of this class remain unknown."

Astronomers think the eruptions of SGRs arise from the most highly magnetized objects in the universe -- magnetars. Magnetars are neutron stars -- the crushed cores of exploded stars -- that, for reasons not yet known, possess ultra-strong magnetic fields. With fields 100 trillion times stronger than Earth's, a magnetar placed half the moon's distance would wipe the magnetic strips of every credit card on the planet. "Magnetars allow us to study extreme matter conditions that cannot be reproduced on Earth," said Kevin Hurley, a team member at the University of California, Berkeley.

Both SGRs and a related group of high-energy neutron stars -- called anomalous X-ray pulsars -- are thought to be magnetars. But, all told, astronomers know of only 15 examples.

SGR 0501+4516, estimated to lie about 15,000 light years away, was only discovered because its outburst gave it away. Astronomers think an unstable configuration of the star's magnetic field triggers the eruptions. "Once the magnetic field resumes a more stable configuration, the activity ceases and the star returns to quiet and dim emission," Rea said.

Twelve hours after Swift pinpointed SGR 0501+4516, XMM-Newton began the most detailed study of a fading magnetar outburst ever attempted. The object underwent hundreds of small bursts over a period of more than four months. Only five days after the initial eruption, INTEGRAL detected X-rays from the object that were beyond the energy range XMM-Newton can see. It's the first time such transient high-energy X-ray emission has been detected during an SGR's outburst phase. This emission disappeared within ten days of the outburst. The findings were published online June 15 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The team plans further observations of SGR 0501+4516 with XMM-Newton. They hope to detect the object in a quiet state in order to probe the calm after the storm.

NASA Awards Hydrospheric and Biospheric Science Services Contract

NASA has selected Sigma Space Corporation of Lanham, Md., to provide Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Support Services. The total maximum ordering value of the cost-plus fixed fee contract will be $120 million.

Sigma will provide support to the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Sigma will support research involving satellite remote sensing as well as field and aircraft instruments for measuring Earth, oceanic, biospheric and atmospheric processes; scientific and engineering support for the development and calibration of remote sensing instruments; and the development of data systems for the production and distribution of satellite products.

This contract will support the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project Science Data Segment; Earth Observing-1; Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and the Earth Observing System missions Terra, Aqua and Aura.

The work will be performed primarily at Goddard. The period of performance for the contract is from June 1, 2009, through May 31, 2014.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Awards First Recovery Act Contract for Johnson Repairs

Using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NASA has awarded to DRI Commercial Corporation of Irvine, Calif., a contract to repair critical infrastructure facilities at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston that were damaged during Hurricane Ike in September 2008. The funds will be used to perform roof repairs and roof ledge replacements at Johnson.

The competitively awarded, firm-fixed-price contract begins June 15, 2009. The total value of the base contract and options is $7.9 million. The base contract lasts approximately 9 months and has seven options. Each of the options, which may be conducted concurrently, also has a performance period of approximately 9 months after notice to begin work.

This is NASA's first procurement using funds from the Recovery Act. Among the key purposes of the Recovery Act are preserving and creating jobs, spurring technological advances in science and health, and promoting economic recovery.

NASA will receive a total of approximately $1 billion in Recovery Act stimulus funding, of which $50 million is prioritized for restoring NASA-owned facilities damaged from hurricanes and other natural disasters that occurred during calendar year 2008.

Use of Recovery Act funds for institutional investments will ensure NASA's key infrastructure capabilities are available to conduct the agency's mission. New jobs will be created to conduct this work funded by the Recovery Act.

The facilities being repaired at Johnson are crucial to NASA's human spaceflight missions. These missions include flying the space shuttle until its retirement, completing the assembly of the International Space Station for its use as a national laboratory, implementing Constellation Program's next-generation space systems and supporting the development of future crew and cargo transportation systems.

For more information about NASA's Johnson Space Center, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/johnson

For the most current information about NASA's use of the Recovery Act funds, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/recovery

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Sets Media Availability for Human Space Flight Committee

The chair of the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, Norman Augustine, will be available for a news media conference on Wednesday, June 17, from approximately 5 to 5:30 p.m. EDT.

The media availability will be in the Carnegie Institute, 1530 P Street NW, Washington, 20005. No prior registration is necessary.

Since retiring from his role as chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin more than a decade ago, Augustine has been one of the nation's leading voices for renewed focus on strengthening American science and technology education. He has chaired several distinguished blue ribbon panels, including the one resulting in the important "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" report of the National Academies and the earlier "Augustine Commission" report on the future of the U.S. space program.

NASA Television will carry the availability live on the agency's media channel. For NASA TV information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about the committee's charter, schedules, meeting agendas and member biographies, visit:

http://hsf.nasa.gov

For information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Postpones Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA postponed space shuttle Endeavour's launch to the International Space Station on Saturday because of a leak associated with the gaseous hydrogen venting system outside the shuttle’s external fuel tank. The system is used to carry excess hydrogen safely away from the launch pad. Managers scrubbed the launch for at least 96 hours.

The earliest the shuttle could be ready to launch is June 17. However, there is a conflict on the Eastern Range that date with the scheduled launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite.

Mission managers will hold a meeting at 2 p.m. EDT Sunday to discuss the repair options and Endeavour's launch opportunities. A news conference will follow the meeting and air on NASA Television and the agency’s Web site.

The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The STS-127 crew members are Commander Mark Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

Polansky, who has a Twitter account named Astro_127, can be followed online at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_127

For information about NASA TV streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about the STS-127 mission and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

SOFIA Makes the Grade

In the darkened interior of NASA's SOFIA flying observatory, NASA and German scientists study the results of system tests on the telescope assembly, including the gyroscope, system software and wide-field and fine-field imagers.

Close

Revealing Jamestown Settlers' Sketches of The New World

NASA researchers who normally study futuristic materials are using their high tech scanners to reveal the past.

Technicians at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., just finished inspecting a 400-year-old slate tablet recently recovered from an early 17^th century well at Historic Jamestowne, the 1607 site of the first permanent English settlement in North America.

NASA Langley has scanned dozens of artifacts for Preservation Virginia, since its Jamestowne Rediscovery archaeologists began the excavation of James Fort 15 years ago. But this is the first time researchers used a new, more sophisticated "micro-focus computed tomography x-ray system" that Langley installed last summer in its Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences laboratory.

"It's a three-dimensional imaging system that allows us to see inside materials without having to take them apart," said Ray Parker, nondestructive evaluation sciences engineer. "It's like a hospital CT scanner, only higher precision. We normally use it to inspect materials for aerospace use, like pieces of the shuttle or composites for hypersonic vehicles."

The eight-foot long, four-foot wide, six-foot high machine, called the X-Tek HMX-ST 225, uses X-rays and computer processing to create a 3-D "picture" of whatever it scans. In this case archaeologists are trying to determine what's written on the slate tablet they found.

"There's a deposit of rust on the tablet and it's covering up lettering and drawings," said Parker. "We're looking at the results of our scans to see if we read what's there."

This is the second time that Parker and technician John Grainger have worked with the Jamestown Rediscovery archaeologists. Last time they inspected a 16^th century Scottish pistol found in one of the fort's wells.

"I think it's fantastic they're finding all this stuff and we get to inspect some of it," Parker said. "I've always had an interest in history. When I grew up we used to visit the Historic Triangle -- Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, Va. -- frequently."

NASA Langley started working with Preservation Virginia more than seven years ago helping to identify artifacts. That role expanded when NASA teamed with Jamestown 2007 to promote the spirit of exploration then, now and in the future. During the 18-month long celebration to honor the 400^th anniversary of Jamestown, NASA even flew a small lead cargo tag, bearing the words "Yames Towne," and some commemorative mementoes on board the space shuttle Atlantis to commemorate the nation's pioneering spirit.

Planck Chills Out

A JPL-developed and -built cooler on the Planck spacecraft has chilled the mission's low-frequency instrument down to its operating temperature of a frosty 20 Kelvin (minus 424 degrees Fahrenheit). The so-called hydrogen sorption cooler was turned on June 4 and achieved the target temperature of 20 Kelvin eight days later. The cooler is part of a chain of coolers that works together to ultimately chill the high-frequency instrument down to 0.1 Kelvin -- an event scheduled to take place in a few weeks.

Planck is currently on its way to its final orbit at the second Lagrange point, which is located about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth, on the opposite side of our planet from the sun. Once there, it will look back to the dawn of time to study the birth of our universe.

Shaken and Stirred: Lab Studies Ice From Frigid Worlds

The most exotic frozen cocktails on Earth won’t be found in a chic restaurant or trendy bar. Scientists are mixing up these icy concoctions in a rather nondescript laboratory not much bigger than a janitor’s closet. The surroundings are spartan, but the recipes they’re using are out of this world.

Researchers in JPL’s Ice Physical Properties Laboratory are recreating the ices found on the frigid bodies that inhabit the cold, outer reaches of our solar system. The goal is to study up-close the chemical and physical processes that take place on and beneath the surface of Titan, Europa, and other fascinating icy bodies such as Enceladus and Iapetus. The lab has specialized equipment, some of it newly invented, to replicate many of the ices found on these frozen worlds and measure how they respond to different conditions.

This unique facility is helping scientists answer questions about how Jupiter’s ice-covered moon Europa might harbor a liquid ocean beneath its surface and how the freezing Enceladus, which circles Saturn, can produce plumes of water ice particles. “We’re trying to shed light on processes that have occurred in the evolution of these bodies and understand what is happening on them now,” said JPL planetary scientist Julie Castillo.

Saturn’s moon Titan, where the surface temperature is about 94 Kelvin (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit), is of particular interest to the lab’s scientists. Its environment is rich in organic chemicals thought to be possible precursors to life. There is evidence that active cryovolcanoes may be spewing super-chilled liquids onto the moon’s surface and into its thick atmosphere. While Titan has lakes of liquid methane on its surface, the water on Titan’s surface is frozen to rock-like hardness.

Castillo and her colleagues in the ice lab are studying how ice, hydrocarbons and mixtures of water and ammonia interact on this mysterious, haze-shrouded moon. “We are replicating the conditions found at Titan in the lab,” Castillo said. “We can produce methane rain like that on Titan and see what happens when it falls on a cold, icy substrate like Titan’s surface.”

“Recreating and testing ices like those found on Titan and Europa allows us to understand how certain processes work in the extreme conditions of these icy satellites," said the ice lab’s principal investigator and manager, JPL physicist Martin Barmatz. Barmatz, together with Castillo, Cassini scientist Karl Mitchell and Fang Zhong of JPL’s low-temperature physics group, was instrumental in establishing the lab two years ago. So far a dozen JPL scientists have been involved with the facility.

“We study physical processes on a microscopic scale, but the results give us insight into large processes such as cryovolcanism,” said Barmatz. “These findings improve our ability to interpret data from missions like Cassini that study icy bodies.”

Lab scientists began their ice research with pure water, to which they added more ingredients, such as ammonia or salts, to mimic the content of the ices found in the outer solar system. Zhong and Joe Young, known as the lab’s “cryogenics geniuses,” devised new apparatus for testing these exotic ices.

The lab is equipped with an array of devices to test the mechanical properties of different ices, such as how they respond to changes in pressure. There are also facilities for calorimetry and viscometry—making measurements of the effect of heat on ice and the consistency of ice. “Our cryogenic apparatus are world-class,” said Barmatz.

One of the early goals for lab scientists was to create and study clathrate hydrates, water ices that form at low temperture and under high pressure and have molecules of different gases locked inside their ice crystals. Postdoctoral researcher and Titan specialist Mathieu Choukroun, who joined the lab last year, has developed a specialized high-pressure system for making many types of these frozen compounds.

Clathrates may be one explanation for the plume activity on Enceladus, Scientists theorize that many of the gases detected in the jets of gas and ice that shoot out from Enceladus’ south polar region could have come from clathrates. Understanding ice behavior will help explain how some frozen worlds can become warm enough to have active features like plumes, ice volcanoes or subsurface liquid reservoirs.

“For decades, scientists have been trying to understand tidal heating,” said Castillo. Tidal heating is warming caused by friction when a body is flexed by the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. “We’ve been able to demonstrate in the lab how ice responds to tidal forcing over a period of days. This is the only lab in the world with this capability. We found that the mechanism many computer models use to describe tidal heating isn’t correct and are providing new data on how ice deforms when under pressure. The ice actually becomes a lot like play dough.”

While the ice lab’s focus has been on other worlds, the research has applications close to home. “Knowing more about the thermal and mechanical properties of ice will help us create better models of Earth’s ice sheets,” Castillo said. "It will also improve our ability to analyze ice cores -- one of the most important records we have of Earth’s past climate."

Castillo recently began organizing an informal ice research network at JPL to share information and support ongoing studies. “We have experts here on most topics relating to ice, whether it is terrestrial, planetary, astrophysical, observed, modeled, explored, sea ice, lake ice, ice with organics and biological cells, clathrates, polar ice, permafrost, snow, cloud ice or cryogenic non-water ices,” said Castillo. “They’re doing cutting-edge research on a wide range of issues from climate change on Earth to habitability in the solar system and beyond.”

“Even though we work on different types of ice and for different applications, we’re all dealing with a fascinating material,” Castillo said. “Ice is found nearly everywhere in the universe and comes in many forms. Where there is ice, there is often water, and where there is water, there is the possibility of life.”

For more information about JPL’s Ice Physical Properties Laboratory, see Julie Castillo’s new blog entry at https://scienceandtechnology.jpl.nasa.gov/community/blogs/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowBlog&NewsID=418 .

Gaseous Hydrogen Leak Postpones Endeavour Launch

A gaseous hydrogen leak on a vent line for space shuttle Endeavour is postponing this morning's launch. The official scrub time was 12:26 a.m. EDT. Launch teams began draining Endeavour's external fuel tank of its liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen at 12:06 a.m.

Fueling was halted after the leak was detected near the Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, which attached to the external tank at its intertank area. The line leads from the GUCP back to the launch pad and to the "flare stack" where vented gaseous hydrogen is burned off.

The leak is similar to what happened during the first launch attempt of space shuttle Discovery's STS-119 mission in March.

After the leak is assessed, shuttle managers plan to meet Saturday morning to discuss what steps to take next, including targeting a new launch date for Endeavour's STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-127

Endeavour Prepares for STS-127
Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex.The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section.

STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.3 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (484KB PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew

Scientists Create Fake Solar Storm to Test on Fake Human

In 1972, Apollo astronauts narrowly escaped a potential catastrophe. On August 2 of that year, a large and angry sunspot appeared and began to erupt, over and over again for more than a week, producing a record-setting fusillade of solar proton radiation. Only pure luck saved the day. The eruptions took place during the gap between Apollo 16 and 17 missions, so astronauts missed the storm.

Researchers still wonder, what would have happened if the timing had been just a little different, what if astronauts had been caught unprotected on the surface of the Moon?

NASA needs to know. The agency is in high gear preparing to send people to the Moon to set up a manned outpost, a step toward eventually sending humans to Mars or elsewhere in the solar system. These missions will take astronauts outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field for months or even years at a time, and NASA must know how to keep its explorers safe from extreme solar storms.

So scientists are creating an artificial solar radiation storm right here on Earth. And they're testing its effects on an artificial human: Matroshka, the Phantom Torso.

The European Space Agency's Matroshka and his NASA counterpart Fred have already flown in experiments aboard the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station that have shown how other kinds of space radiation such as cosmic rays penetrate the human body. Now, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, are subjecting an artificial torso to a beam of protons to learn how astronauts would be affected by the 1972 event.

"We want to know how close it comes to a dangerously acute exposure," says Francis Cucinotta, the Chief Scientist for NASA's Radiation Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

In the parlance of radiation experts, "acute exposure" is brief but intense. Radiation strikes the body over a relatively short period of time ranging from minutes to hours—just like a solar flare. This is different from the "chronic exposure" astronauts normally experience as they travel through space. Cosmic rays hit their bodies in a slow drizzle spread out over weeks or months. With chronic exposure, the body has time to repair or replace damaged cells as it goes along, but an acute exposure gives the body little time to cope with the damage.

"The biological effects are very sensitive to the dose rate," Cucinotta explains. "A dose of radiation delivered over a short amount of time is two to three times more damaging than the same dose over a few days."

At first glance, the 1972 event would seem to fall into the acute category—it was after all a solar flare. But there's a problem. It was actually a series of flares producing a radiation storm that was longer and less impulsive than normal. Radiation exposure would have been neither chronic nor clearly acute, but somewhere in between. In this gray area, details about how much of the radiation actually reaches a person’s vital organs — versus how much is blocked by their spacesuit, skin and muscles — can make all the difference.

Matroshka is helping scientists understand these details. He's a life-size plastic replica of a human torso, sans arms and legs. The plastic closely matches the density of organs and tissues in the human body, and this Phantom Torso is embedded with hundreds of radiation sensors throughout his body. He even has real human blood cells.

"We put blood cells in small tubes in the stomach and in some places in the bone marrow," some of which are deep within the torso while others are close to the surface where there's less "tissue" to block radiation. "One of the questions we have is whether the less shielded parts of the bone marrow will be [much harder hit]," raising the risks of leukemia and other cancers.

Using real blood cells lets scientists see how much the radiation damages the cells' DNA. High-speed particles of proton radiation can smash into DNA, breaking the string-like molecules. Cells can usually repair these breaks, but if several breaks occur within a short period of time, the damage can be irreparable. At best, the cell will then self-destruct. At worst, it will go haywire and grow out of control, becoming cancerous.

To subject Matroshka to a 1972-style radiation storm, scientists have devised a way to simulate that event using a high-energy proton beam at NASA's Space Radiation Lab in Brookhaven. The beam fans out so that, at the point where Matroshka sits, it's 60 cm across — large enough to engulf the entire torso. By stepping the energy of the beam through a series of energy levels, scientists can mimic the unique energy spectrum of the protons in the 1972 event.

In the upcoming experiment, led by Guenther Reitz of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, Matroshka's radiation sensors will reveal how much proton radiation reaches various parts of the mannequin's body. "With protons, you might have an order of magnitude (a factor of ten) difference from one part of the body to another," notes Cucinotta.

The readings will help mission planners figure out how much shielding is necessary to protect real astronauts from a 72-style storm. The results will also point researchers in the right direction for medical treatments that might help mitigate the effects of such an event.

Unlike a real astronaut, Matroshka can withstand multiple flares with no lasting side effects. A quick transfusion of blood cells and voilà--Matroshka is ready for another blast.

So let the flares begin—and stay tuned for results.

Related Links:

> The Phantom Torso Returns (Science@NASA)
> Sickening Solar Flares (Science@NASA)
> NASA's Future:US Space Exploration Policy

Transportation on the Moon

Unlike Earth the moon does not have air, food and water, so it would take a lot of effort for humans to live and work there, wrote Raina Huang, a student at Bexley High School in Columbus, Ohio, and finalist in the second annual NASA Lunar Art Contest.

The contest, sponsored by NASA's Langley Research Center, had a total of 147 entrants from 25 states, France, Poland, India and Romania. A panel of 12 reviewers that included professional artists, scientists, engineers and educators evaluated the entries using three criteria: the artist's statement, creativity and artistic expression, and whether the art represented a valid scenario.

To view the 2009 contest winners, visit NASA Lunar Art Contest.

WISE Mission Assembled and Preparing for Launch

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has been assembled and is undergoing final preparations for a planned Nov. 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

The mission will survey the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating a cosmic clearinghouse of hundreds of millions of objects -- everything from the most luminous galaxies, to the nearest stars, to dark and potentially hazardous asteroids. The survey will be the most detailed to date in infrared light, with a sensitivity hundreds of times better than that of its predecessor, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite.

"Most of the sky has never been imaged at these infrared wavelengths with this kind of sensitivity," said Edward Wright, the mission's principal investigator at UCLA. "We are sure to find many surprises."

On May 17, the mission's science instrument was delivered to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., where it was attached to the spacecraft, built by Ball. The assembled unit was then blasted by sound to simulate the effects of launch. Tests for electronic "noise" in the detectors will be performed next.

The science instrument is a 40-centimeter (16-inch) telescope with four infrared cameras. A cryostat, or cooler, uses frozen hydrogen to chill the sensitive megapixel infrared detectors down to seven Kelvin (minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit). The instrument was built by Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah.

Among expected finds from WISE are hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system's asteroid belt, and hundreds of additional asteroids that come near Earth. Many asteroids have gone undetected because they don't reflect much visible light, but their heat makes them glow in infrared light that WISE can see. By cataloguing the objects, the mission will provide better estimates of their sizes, a critical step for assessing the risk associated with those that might impact Earth.

"We know that asteroids occasionally hit Earth, and we'd like to have a better idea of how many there are and their sizes," said Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., the mission's deputy project scientist. "Whether they are dark or shiny, they all emit infrared light. They can't hide from WISE."

The mission is also expected to find the coldest stars -- dim orbs called brown dwarfs that are too small to have ignited like our sun. Brown dwarfs are littered throughout our galaxy, but because they are so cool, they are often too faint to see in visible light. The infrared detectors on WISE will pick up the glow of roughly 1,000 brown dwarfs in our galaxy, including those coldest and closest to our solar system. In fact, astronomers say the mission could find a brown dwarf closer to us than the nearest known star, Proxima Centauri, located approximately 4 light-years away.

"We've been learning that brown dwarfs may have planets, so it's possible we'll find the closest planetary systems," said Peter Eisenhardt, the mission's project scientist at JPL. "We should also find many hundreds of brown dwarfs colder than 480 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit), a group that as of now has only nine known members."

In addition, the survey will reveal the universe's most luminous galaxies seen long ago in the dusty throes of their formation, disks of planet-forming material around stars, and other cosmic goodies. The observations will guide other infrared telescopes to the most interesting objects for follow-up studies. For example, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the Herschel observatory just launched by ESA with significant NASA participation, and NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will direct their gaze at objects uncovered by WISE.

WISE will lift off from Vandenberg aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. It will orbit Earth, mapping the entire sky in six months after a one-month checkout period. Its frozen hydrogen is expected to last several months longer, allowing WISE to map much of the sky a second time and see what has changed.

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The mission's principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorer Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Science operations and data processing will take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/mission.html .

Baby Stars Finally Found in Jumbled Galactic Center

Astronomers have at last uncovered newborn stars at the frenzied center of our Milky Way galaxy. The discovery was made using the infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The heart of our spiral galaxy is cluttered with stars, dust and gas, and at its very center, a supermassive black hole. Conditions there are harsh, with fierce stellar winds, powerful shock waves and other factors that make it difficult for stars to form. Astronomers have known that stars can form in this chaotic place, but they're baffled as to how this occurs. Confounding the problem is all the dust standing between us and the center of our galaxy. Until now, nobody had been able to definitively locate any baby stars.

"These stars are like needles in a haystack," said Solange Ramirez, the principal investigator of the research program at NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "There's no way to find them using optical light, because dust gets in the way. We needed Spitzer's infrared instruments to cut through the dust and narrow in on the objects."

The team plans to look for additional baby stars in the future, and ultimately to piece together what types of conditions allow stars to form in such an inhospitable environment as our galaxy's core.

"By studying individual stars in the galactic center, we can better understand how stars are formed in different interstellar environments," said Deokkeun An of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech, lead author of a paper submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. "The Milky Way galaxy is just one of more than hundreds of billions of galaxies in the visible universe. However, our galaxy is so special because we can take a closer look at its individual stellar components." An started working on this program while a graduate student at Ohio State University, Columbus, under the leadership of Ohio State astronomer Kris Sellgren, the co-investigator on the project.

The core of the Milky Way is a mysterious place about 600 light-years across (light would take 600 years to travel from one end to the other). While this is just a fraction of the size of the entire Milky Way, which is about 100,000 light-years across, the core is stuffed with 10 percent of all the gas in the galaxy -- and loads and loads of stars.

Before now, there were only a few clues that stars can form in the galaxy's core. Astronomers had found clusters of massive adolescent stars, in addition to clouds of charged gas -- a sign that new stars are beginning to ignite and ionize surrounding gas. Past attempts had been unsuccessful in finding newborn stars, or as astronomers call them, young stellar objects.

Ramirez and colleagues began their search by scanning large Spitzer mosaics of our galactic center. They narrowed in on more than 100 candidates, but needed more detailed data to confirm the stars' identities. Young stellar objects, when viewed from far away, can look a lot like much older stars. Both types of stars are very dusty, and the dust lying between us and them obscures the view even further.

To sort through the confusion, the astronomers looked at their candidate stars with Spitzer's spectrograph – an instrument that breaks light apart to reveal its rainbow-like array of infrared colors. Molecules around stars leave imprints in their light, which the spectrograph can detect.

The results revealed three stars with clear signs of youth, for example, certain warm, dense gases. These youthful features are found in other places in the galaxy where stars are being formed.
"It is amazing to me that we have found these stars," said Ramirez. "The galactic center is a very interesting place. It has young stars, old stars, black holes, everything. We started mining a catalog of about 1 million sources and managed to find three young stars -- stars that will help reveal the secrets at the core of the Milky Way."

The young stellar objects are all less than about 1 million years old. They are embedded in cocoons of gas and dust, which will eventually flatten to disks that, according to theory, later lump together to form planets.

Other collaborators include Richard Arendt of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; A. C. Adwin Boogert of NASA's Herschel Science Center, Caltech in Pasadena; Mathias Schultheis of the Besancon Observatory in France; Susan Stolovy of NASA's Spitzer Science Center, Caltech in Pasadena; Angela Cotera of SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.; and Thomas Robitaille and Howard Smith of Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

The Mars Hoax Goes Viral

For the sixth year in a row, a message about the Red Planet is infecting worldwide email boxes. It instructs readers to go outside after dark on August 27th and behold the sky. "Mars will look as large as the full moon," it says. "No one alive today will ever see this again."

Don't believe it.

Here's what will really happen if you go outside after dark on August 27th. Nothing. Mars won't be there. On that date, the red planet will be nearly 250 million km away from Earth and completely absent from the evening sky.

The Mars Hoax got its start in 2003 when Earth and Mars really did have a close encounter. On Aug. 27th of that year, Mars was only 56 million km away, a 60,000-year record for martian close approaches to Earth. Someone sent an email alerting friends to the event. The message contained some misunderstandings and omissions—but what email doesn't? A piece of advanced technology called the "forward button" did the rest.

Tolerant readers may say that the Mars Hoax is not really a hoax, because it is not an intentional trick. The composer probably believed everything he or she wrote in the message. If that's true, a better name might be the "Mars Misunderstanding" or maybe the "Confusing-Email-About-Mars-You-Should-Delete-and-Not-Forward-to-Anyone-Except-Your-In-Laws."

Another aspect of the Mars Hoax: It says "Mars will look as large as the full Moon if you magnify it 75x using a backyard telescope." The italicized text is usually omitted from verbal and written summaries of the Hoax. (For example, see the beginning of this story.) Does this fine print make the Mars Hoax true? After all, if you magnify the tiny disk of Mars 75x, it does subtend an angle about the same as the Moon.

No. Even with magnification, Mars does not look the same as a full Moon.

This has more to do with the mysterious inner workings of the human brain than cold, hard physics. Looking at Mars magnified 75x through a slender black tube (the eyepiece of a telescope) and looking at the full Moon shining unfettered in the open sky are two very different experiences.

A good reference is the Moon Illusion. Moons on the horizon look huge; Moons directly overhead look smaller. In both cases, it is the same Moon, but the human mind perceives the size of the Moon differently depending on its surroundings.

Likewise, your perception of Mars is affected by the planet's surroundings. Locate the planet at the end of a little dark tunnel, and it is going to look tiny regardless of magnification.

Bummer!

To see Mars as big as a full Moon, you'll need a rocketship, and that may take some time. Meanwhile, beware the Mars Hoax.

STS-127 Launch Countdown to Begin Wednesday

Preparations to begin the STS-127 launch countdown are proceeding on schedule as NASA prepares for liftoff of space shuttle Endeavour on Saturday, June 13, at 7:17 a.m. EDT.

"I have no issues to report," said NASA Test Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson during a prelaunch status briefing from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday. "The STS-127 flight crew, Endeavour and the launch team are all ready to proceed with their launch countdown call-to-stations tomorrow."

The seven STS-127 crew members arrived at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 11:53 p.m. Monday. The countdown will begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. as clocks begin counting down from T-43 hours.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-127

Endeavour Prepares for STS-127
Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex.The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section.

Five Things About LRO

If you have never heard of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), here are five quick things you should know:

• LRO is leading NASA’s way back to the moon.


• The primary objective of LRO is to conduct investigations preparing for future exploration of the moon. Specifically LRO will scout for safe and compelling lunar landing sites, locate potential resources with special attention to the possibility of water ice, and characterize the effects of prolonged exposure to the lunar radiation environment. In addition to its exploration mission, LRO will also return rich scientific data that will help us to better understand the moon’s topography and composition.


• The instrument payload of LRO consists of seven scientific instruments from partner institutions around the nation and globe, including one instrument contributed by the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. These instruments will return lunar imagery, topography, temperatures, and more.


• Launching along with LRO is the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), a partner mission that will search for water ice on the moon by sending a SUV-sized rocket stage into the permanent shadows of a polar crater. LCROSS will fly into the plume of dust left by the impact and take measurements of its properties before also colliding with the lunar surface.


• In response to LRO’s “Send Your Name to the Moon” web site, the spacecraft carries a microchip with nearly 1.6 million names that were submitted by the public.

Keck Study Sheds New Light on 'Dark' Gamma-ray Bursts

Gamma-ray bursts are the universe's biggest explosions, capable of producing so much light that ground-based telescopes easily detect it billions of light-years away. Yet, for more than a decade, astronomers have puzzled over the nature of so-called dark bursts, which produce gamma rays and X-rays but little or no visible light. They make up roughly half of the bursts detected by NASA's Swift satellite since its 2004 launch.

At the American Astronomical Society meeting in Pasadena, Calif., an international team of astronomers today reported surprising new insight into dark bursts. The study finds that most occur in normal galaxies detectable by large, ground-based optical telescopes.

"One possible explanation for dark bursts was that they were occurring so far away their visible light was completely extinguished," said Joshua Bloom, associate professor of astronomy at the University of California (UC), Berkeley and the study's senior author. Thanks to the expansion of the universe and a thickening fog of hydrogen gas at increasing cosmic distances, astronomers see no visible light from objects more than about 12.9 billion light-years away. Another possibility: Dark bursts were exploding in galaxies with unusually thick amounts of interstellar dust, which absorbed a burst's light but not its higher-energy radiation.

Using one of the world's largest optical telescopes, the 10-meter Keck I in Hawaii, the team looked for unknown galaxies at the locations of 14 Swift-discovered dark bursts. "For eleven of these bursts, we found a faint, normal galaxy," said Daniel Perley, the UC Berkeley graduate student who led the study. If these galaxies were located at extreme distances, not even the Keck telescope could see them. Most gamma-ray bursts occur when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel. As their cores collapse into a black hole or neutron star, gas jets -- driven by processes not fully understood -- punch through the star and blast into space. There, they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it, which generates short-lived afterglows in many wavelengths, including visible light.

The study shows that dark bursts must be similar, except for the dusty patches in their host galaxies that obscure most of the light in their afterglows.

"Our study provides compelling evidence that a large fraction of star formation in the universe is hidden by dust in galaxies that do not appear otherwise dusty," Perley said. The stars thought to explode as gamma-ray bursts live fast and die young. Dark bursts may represent stars that never drifted far from the dusty clouds that formed them.

Gamma-ray bursts have been detected in infrared wavelengths as far out as 13.1 billion light-years. "If gamma-ray bursts were frequent 13 billion years ago -- less than a billion years after the universe formed -- we ought to be detecting large numbers of them," explained team member S. Bradley Cenko, also at UC Berkeley. "We don't, which indicates that the first stars formed at a less frenzied pace than some models suggested."

The astronomers conclude that less than about 7 percent of dark bursts can be occurring at such distances, and they propose radio and microwave observations of the new galaxies to better understand how their dusty regions block light. A paper on the findings has been submitted to The Astronomical Journal.

Swift is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It was built and is being operated in collaboration with Pennsylvania State University, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and General Dynamics of Gilbert, Ariz., in the United States. International collaborators include the University of Leicester and Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory in the United Kingdom, Brera Observatory and the Italian Space Agency in Italy, and additional partners in Germany and Japan.

'Curiosity,' Meet Clara

Twelve-year-old Clara Ma flew from Kansas to JPL to meet and sign the next rover that will zoom millions of miles to Mars. The trip is Clara's prize for winning an essay contest in which she named the rover "Curiosity."

Clara, a sixth-grader from Sunflower Elementary school in Lenexa, Kan., got a VIP tour of JPL, along with her parents and sister. Inside the building where Curiosity is being assembled, Clara donned a "bunny suit" to step into the clean room and sign her name on the rover. The trip to JPL was provided by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Clara and her family also visited the Mars Yard, where future generations of rovers are tested. For more information about the next rover mission, go to http://www.nasa.gov/msl .

Dawn Re-Lights the Ionic Fire

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have received a transmission from the Dawn spacecraft confirming it has re-ignited its ion propulsion system. For those of you scoring at home, Thruster # 1 received the honors. Over the course of its eight-year mission, first to asteroid Vesta and then off to dwarf planet Ceres, Dawn's three ion engines will accumulate 2,000 days of operation.

The mission of the 1180 kilograms (2,600 pound) spacecraft is to reconnoiter Vesta and Ceres, the asteroid belt's two biggest residents.

Dawn is currently 299 million kilometers (185.6 million miles) from Earth. At that distance, it takes almost 17 minutes for a transmission from the spacecraft to arrive on Earth.

For more information on Dawn please visit: www.nasa.gov/dawn or http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

STS-127 Astronauts Arrive at Kennedy Space Center, Begin Final Launch Preps

The seven astronauts for space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-127 mission to the International Space Station are at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew arrived at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility from Houston in a Shuttle Training Aircraft Gulfstream II jet at 11:53 p.m. EDT Monday, June 8.

After arriving STS-127 Commander Mark Polansky and his crew made brief statements to media who were gathered at the shuttle runway. The astronauts now are beginning their final preparations ahead of Endeavour’s launch on Saturday, June 13 at 7:17 a.m.

Space Shuttle Missions: STS-125 and STS-127

Endeavour Prepares for STS-127
Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex.The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section.

STS-127 Additional Resources
› Mission Press Kit (6.3 Mb PDF)
› Mission Summary (484KB PDF)
› Meet the STS-127 Crew

Space Your Face

NASA continues to forge a robust space exploration program, and you can be a part of it -- one step, one "groove" at a time! Upload your photo and show friends and family your space moves!

Crystal Formation

This artist's concept illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst from a growing star. The image shows a young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. The silicate that makes up most of the dust would have begun as non-crystallized, amorphous particles.

As streams of material spiral from the disk onto the star, its mass increases and it brightens and heats up dramatically. The resulting outburst causes temperatures to rise in the star's surrounding disk.

When the disk warms from the star's outburst, the amorphous particles of silicate melt. As they cool off, they transform into forsterite (see inset), a type of silicate crystal often found in comets in our solar system.

In April 2008, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected evidence of this process taking place on the disk of a young sun-like star called EX Lupi.

NASA Launches Human Space Flight Review Web Site for Public Use

NASA is inviting the public to make its voice heard as a panel of experts undertakes an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities.

NASA has created a Web site for the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee to facilitate a two-way conversation with the public about the future direction of the agency's space flight programs. In addition to providing documents and information, the site will allow the public to track committee activities, receive regular updates and provide input through Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Flickr, user-submitted questions, polls and RSS feeds. Additional features and content may be added as the committee’s activities continue.

"The human space flight program belongs to everyone," committee chairman Norman Augustine said. "Our committee would hope to benefit from the views of all who would care to contact us."

Anyone may use the Web site to submit questions, upload documents or comment about topics relevant to the committee’s operations. The committee will conduct public meetings during the course of the review. The first will be held June 17 in Washington, D.C. An agenda for this meeting will be announced soon. Time will be set aside for public questions and comments to the committee members. No registration is required to attend.

To learn more, visit the committee's Web site at:

http://hsf.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency activities, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

NASA Sets Lunar Spacecraft Launch Coverage Events

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, spacecraft are set to launch together to the moon aboard an Atlas V rocket on June 17. Three launch opportunities from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., are at 3:51 p.m., 4:01 p.m. and 4:11 p.m. EDT. NASA Television's coverage of the launch will begin at 1 p.m. EDT.

If the launch is postponed 24 hours, the launch times on June 18 are 5:12 p.m., 5:22 p.m. and 5:32 p.m.

LRO's objectives during its mission orbiting the moon are to identify safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. LRO will orbit the poles of the moon during a one-year exploration mission followed by a planned multi-year science mission.

Approximately four to five months after launch, LCROSS will impact the moon, providing key information about the lunar composition and presence of water ice or hydrated minerals.

Prelaunch news conference
A prelaunch news conference on Monday, June 15, at 1 p.m. will be held at the news center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and broadcast live on NASA TV. Participants in the briefing will be:

- Todd May, program manager, Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
- Chuck Dovale, NASA launch director, Kennedy Space Center
- Vernon Thorp, program manager, NASA Missions, United Launch Alliance, Cape Canaveral
- Craig Tooley, LRO project manager, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
- Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
- Clay Flinn, Atlas V launch weather officer, 45th Weather Squadron, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

LRO and LCROSS mission science briefing
A mission science briefing on Tuesday, June 16, at 1 p.m. will be held at Kennedy's news center and broadcast live on NASA TV. Participants in the briefing will be:

- Mike Wargo, chief lunar scientist, Exploration Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Rich Vondrak, project scientist, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Goddard
- Tony Colaprete, project scientist, LCROSS, Ames

Accreditation and media access badges for Kennedy Space Center
Reporters who want to cover the LRO and LCROSS prelaunch news conference, mission briefing and launch must complete the online accreditation process at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Accreditation for U.S. media representatives must be received by the close of business on Wednesday, June 10. Journalists may obtain their NASA access badge at the Kennedy Badging Office, located near Gate 3 on State Road 405, just past the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Two forms of government issued identification, one with a photo, will be required to receive an access badge. For further information about accreditation, contact Laurel Lichtenberger at 321-867-4036.

Kennedy news center hours
Monday, June 15: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Tuesday, June 16: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, June 17: 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Atlas V launch vehicle rollout
On Tuesday, June 16, reporters will have the opportunity to observe the rollout of the Atlas V rocket from the Vertical Integration Facility to the launch pad at Complex 41. Journalists will depart by bus from the Kennedy press site at 9 a.m.

Remote camera placement at Launch Complex 41
On Wednesday, June 17, photographers who wish to set up remote, sound-activated cameras at the Atlas V launch pad will depart by bus from the parking lot at the Kennedy press site at 8:30 a.m.

Launch day press site access
On launch day, reporters will cover the LRO and LCROSS launch from the Kennedy press site. Access will be through Gate 2 on State Road 3 or Gate 3 on State Road 405. There will be no access through Gate 1 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

NASA Web prelaunch and launch coverage
Extensive prelaunch and launch day coverage of the lift off of LRO and LCROSS aboard an Atlas V rocket will be available on NASA's home on the Internet at:

http://www.nasa.gov

A prelaunch webcast for the two missions to the moon will be streamed on the Web at noon on Tuesday, June 16 and broadcast on NASA TV. The webcast will feature Cathy Peddie, deputy project manager for LRO at Goddard; Kimberly Ennico, payload scientist for LCROSS at Ames; and Chuck Tatro, mission manager for NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy. George Diller of NASA Public Affairs will host the program.

Live countdown coverage through NASA's launch blog begins at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, June 17. Coverage features live updates as countdown milestones occur, as well as streaming video clips highlighting launch preparations and liftoff. For questions about countdown coverage, contact Jeanne Ryba at 321-867-7824.

To view the webcast and the blog or to learn more about the LRO and LCROSS missions, visit the mission home pages at:

http://www.nasa.gov/LRO

and

http://www.nasa.gov/LCROSS

The NASA News Twitter feed will be updated throughout the launch countdown and during spacecraft checkout. To access the NASA News Twitter feed, visit:

http://www.twitter.com/nasa

NASA TV coverage
NASA Television will carry the LRO and LCROSS prelaunch news conference, mission science briefing and launch. Launch day coverage will begin at 1 p.m. and conclude approximately one hour after launch. There will not be a postlaunch news conference.

For NASA Television downlink information, schedule information and streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

A postlaunch news release will be issued approximately one hour after launch or as soon as data about the LRO spacecraft state-of-health is available. An additional news release will be issued after the Centaur has been turned over to LCROSS for mission operations, which occurs approximately four and a half hours after launch. Spokespersons also will be available at the Kennedy press site to answer questions and for interviews.

Audio only of the prelaunch news conference and launch coverage will be available by dialing 321-867-1220, -1240, -1260 or -7135. On launch day, mission audio of the launch conductor's countdown activities without NASA TV launch commentary, will be carried on 321-867-7135 starting at noon. Launch audio also will be available on local amateur VHF radio frequency 146.940 MHz, heard within Brevard County.

Recorded status reports about the launch of the LRO and LCROSS spacecraft and updates to the media advisory will be provided on the Kennedy media phone line at 321-867-2525 starting Monday, June 15.

The launch management of LRO and LCROSS is the responsibility of the Launch Services Program at Kennedy. United Launch Alliance is the launch service provider for the Atlas V. Goddard built and provides project management for the LRO spacecraft. Northrop Grumman built the LCROSS spacecraft for Ames, which also is responsible for its project management.

Rebooting Resembles February Event

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status Report

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in safe mode and in communications with Earth after an unexpected rebooting of its computer Wednesday evening, June 3.

The spontaneous reboot resembles a Feb. 23 event on the spacecraft. Engineers concluded the most likely cause for that event was a cosmic ray or solar particle hitting electronics and causing an erroneous voltage reading.

Jim Erickson, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "The spacecraft is sending down high-rate engineering data, power positive, batteries fully charged, sun pointed and thermally safe. The flight team is cautiously bringing the orbiter back to normal operations. We should be resuming our exploration of Mars by next week."

The reboot occurred at approximately 6:10 p.m. PDT (9:10 p.m. EDT) on June 3. This is the sixth time since the spacecraft began its primary science phase in November 2006 that it has entered safe mode, which is its programmed precaution when it senses a condition for which it does not know a more specific response.

NASA Develops Rehydration Beverage

To help keep astronauts at peak performance during missions, NASA researched, qualified and patented a highly effective electrolyte concentrate formula that maintains and restores optimal body hydration levels quickly and conveniently. Developed as a remedy for dehydration, it helps prevent the loss of body fluids during heavy exercise, heat exposure and illness. It also can be used to treat and prevent dehydration caused by altitude sickness and jetlag.

NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., licensed the patented rehydration formula to Wellness Brands Inc., Boulder, Colo. Wellness Brands plans to launch its first electrolyte concentrate brand, 'The Right Stuff' in June 2009.

"We developed the hydration formula to perform optimally under the most extreme conditions. The health of our highly trained astronauts was paramount," explained John Greenleaf, now a former Ames research scientist and inventor of the formula. "With all that Americans and the government have invested in the space program and our astronauts, this is one clear way to protect and maximize that investment. And now the general public will benefit from this research as well."

The novel electrolyte formula contains a specific ratio of key ingredients, sodium chloride and sodium citrate, for rapid restoration of hydration. These electrolytes, dissolved in water, optimize the levels of sodium ions in the body. The beverage is an isotonic formulation that restores both intra- and extracellular body fluid volumes in dehydrated astronauts, athletes and others.

For more information about 'The Right Stuff' from Wellness Brands, Inc., visit:

http://www.therightstuff-usa.com

For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program, and NASA technology infusion activities, visit:

http://ipp.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

LRO Team Gets Visit from Apollo 17's Jack Schmitt

Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison "Jack" Schmitt visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., on June 3 for an interview with Fox News as part of an upcoming feature commemorating this July's 40th anniversary of the first moon landing.

During his visit, Schmitt spoke with Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter team members. Scheduled for launch on June 17, LRO and its companion mission, LCROSS, will help identify safe landing sites for future human explorers, locate potential resources -- particularly water ice, characterize the radiation environment and test new technology.

NASA Gives 'Go' for June 13 Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour

NASA managers completed a review Wednesday of space shuttle Endeavour's readiness for flight and selected June 13 as the official launch date for the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 7:17 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Endeavour's launch date was announced following a daylong Flight Readiness Review at Kennedy. During the meeting, top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the mission and determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.

The 16-day mission will feature five spacewalks and complete construction of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Astronauts will attach a platform to the outside of the Japanese module that will allow experiments to be exposed to space.

The STS-127 crew members are Polansky, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Tom Marshburn, Tim Kopra and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Julie Payette. Kopra will join the space station crew and replace Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata. Wakata will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude a three-month stay at the station.

Polansky, who has a Twitter account named Astro_127, can be followed online at:

http://www.twitter.com/Astro_127

For more information about the STS-127 crew and its mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

Spirit Takes a Peek at Her Belly

A new image of Spirit's underbelly is helping engineers assess the rover's current state and plan her escape from soft soil. The panoramic mosaic of multiple images was taken by the microscopic imager instrument at the end of Spirit's robotic arm -- the first time that imager has been used to assess the underside and wheels of the rover. The image appears blurred because the microscopic camera was designed to focus on targets just a few centimeters in front of its optics. The imagery will assist engineers with analyses and ground-based testing to recreate the rover's conditions before testing various options for extracting it from its current location.

The full image can be seen at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/images/mer-20090603.html .

Cassini Finds Titan's Clouds Hang on to Summer

Cloud chasers studying Saturn's moon Titan say its clouds form and move much like those on Earth, but in a much slower, more lingering fashion.

Their forecast for Titan's early autumn -- warm and wetter.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have monitored Titan's atmosphere for three-and-a-half years, between July 2004 and December 2007, and observed more than 200 clouds. They found that the way these clouds are distributed around Titan matches scientists' global circulation models. The only exception is timing -- clouds are still noticeable in the southern hemisphere while fall is approaching.

"Titan's clouds don't move with the seasons exactly as we expected," said Sebastien Rodriguez of the University of Paris Diderot, in collaboration with Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team members at the University of Nantes, France. "We see lots of clouds during the summer in the southern hemisphere, and this summer weather seems to last into the early fall. It looks like Indian summer on Earth, even if the mechanisms are radically different on Titan from those on Earth. Titan may then experience a warmer and wetter early autumn than forecasted by the models."

On Earth, abnormally warm, dry weather periods in late autumn occur when low-pressure systems are blocked in the winter hemisphere. By contrast, scientists think the sluggishness of temperature changes at the surface and low atmosphere on Titan may be responsible for its unexpected warm and wet, hence cloudy, late summer.

The new infrared images showing the global cloud pattern are now available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

As summer changes to fall at the equinox in August 2009, Titan's clouds are expected to disappear altogether. But, circulation models of Titan's weather and climate predict that clouds at the southern latitudes don't wait for the equinox and should have already faded out since 2005. However, Cassini was still able to see clouds at these places late in 2007, and some of them are particularly active at mid-latitudes and the equator.

Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere, and its climate shares Earth-like characteristics. Titan's dense, nitrogen-methane atmosphere responds much more slowly than Earth's atmosphere, as it receives about 100 times less sunlight because it is 10 times farther from the sun. Seasons on Titan last more than seven Earth years.

Scientists will continue to observe the long-term changes during Cassini's extended mission, which runs until the fall of 2010. Cassini is set to fly by Titan on May 6.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

STS-127 Launch Officially Set for June 13

NASA managers completed a review Wednesday of space shuttle Endeavour's readiness for flight and selected June 13 as the official launch date for the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station. Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 7:17 a.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"Folks have done a tremendous job getting ready to go fly again," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Space Operations. Gerstenmaier cited the recent STS-125 mission flown by space shuttle Atlantis as a factor in today's flight readiness review, and commented on the complexity of the STS-127 mission timeline, which includes five spacewalks and intricate robotics work. "It will be a very challenging mission."

Space Shuttle Missions: STS-125 and STS-127

Endeavour Prepares for STS-127; Atlantis is Home
Space shuttle Endeavour is in place at Launch Pad 39A, undergoing final preparations for its upcoming 16-day mission to the International Space Station. Mission STS-127 is the 32nd flight dedicated to station construction, and the final of a series of three flights dedicated to the assembly of the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex.The STS-127 payload is the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module Exposed Section.

Space shuttle Atlantis landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a modified 747 jet known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. On May 24, Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California completing mission STS-125, a 13-day journey of approximately 5.3 million miles in space.

NASA Applied Sciences Projects Improve Famine Predictions Worldwide

Almost all of the 300 families in the southwest Afghanistan town of Sya Kamarak, a day's drive along broken roads from the nearest city, live off the land. When the rains failed in April and May 2008, farmers lost most of their wheat harvest -- an annual crop down sixty percent from previous years. Three families had already lost children to starvation; the drought threatened to take more.

The situation in Sya Kamarak is one of the reasons two new NASA projects are being developed that use satellite data and powerful computer models to help public health officials better anticipate famine and speed up the delivery of food supplies and humanitarian aid to populations in critical need. With the inception of these programs, NASA satellite images are now used to develop a sustainable technique for identifying drought conditions and agricultural failure long before harvest time.

Approximately 70 million people died of famine in the twentieth century, including an estimated 400,000 in Ethiopia in the 1980s. These large-scale famines shocked the world and pointed to the lack of timely information - prompting the creation of an early warning system for famine by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 1985. The warning system has since evolved into a worldwide Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) that uses NASA data to classify food insecurity levels and alert authorities to predicted crises.

FEWS NET monitors food security in 20 African countries, Guatemala, Haiti and Afghanistan. NASA and its partners, including, the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), provide accurate and timely data products into FEWS NET. NASA's data on long-term changes in rainfall, vegetation, reservoir height and other climate factors significantly enhance USAID's ability to accurately predict food shortages and disseminate these findings to a broad audience around the world in a timely manner.

The newly funded NASA projects use the latest computer models to better understand famine and the economic impacts of food crises. One of these efforts uses NASA's Land Information System, a land surface model that predicts terrestrial water and energy and is useful in weather, climate and agricultural forecasting. NASA is also inputting remotely sensed data into food price models to map the correlation between food insecurity and food costs.

"For the first time we can leverage satellite observations of crop production to create a more accurate price model that will help humanitarian aid organizations and other decision makers predict how much food will be available and how the cost of food will change as a result," said Molly Brown, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This is a unique opportunity for an economic model to take climate variables into account in a way that can aid populations large and small."

One of the major issues encountered by humanitarian and local government officials is that it can sometimes take up to six months from the time that assistance is approved to the time it is delivered to those in need. This delay means that the budgetary decisions that precede humanitarian intervention must be made months before the actual onset of the famine. Earth observations can contribute to policy makers' understanding of hazards over years, seasons and months, giving them the ability to anticipate and plan for potential famines. John Haynes, program manager for the Applied Sciences Public Health Program, notes that integrating timely NASA data into FEWS NET is especially pertinent today, given that seemingly minute changes in climate conditions can affect an entire season of crops.

"Enhancing public health decision-making through remote sensing, as in the FEWS NET project, is particularly relevant due to the threat of global climate change," says Haynes, "Climate change may exacerbate food insecurity in the 21st Century from more frequent episodes of drought or flooding, depending on the region."

The international humanitarian aid community continues to benefit from NASA's Earth observations and modeling capabilities. The FEWS NET project demonstrates the linkages that can be made between Earth observations and the thousands of people facing food security challenges every year.

"We hope that decision makers will work together with scientists to apply our models, so that even a farmer on a small plot of land can better sustain his family during a drought," added Brown.

The town of Sya Kamarak, and many others around the world, may soon benefit from these NASA programs. In fact, at a 2009 USDA summit on food security, Robert Tetrault, satellite imagery archive manager with USDA said the following in regard to Sya Kamark, "The U.S. used [NASA satellite imagery] to develop a sustainable technique for identifying drought conditions and agricultural failure in Central Asia long before harvest time. They were able to assure adequate food and feed supplies, help farmers affected by the drought, and save lives."

Related Links:

> NASA's Applied Sciences Program
> FEWSNET: Famine Early Warning Systems Network

Paul Haney, the Voice of the Gemini and Apollo Programs, Dies

Paul Haney, a longtime NASA public affairs officer and voice of the Gemini and Apollo programs, passed away Thursday in New Mexico at the age of 80.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Haney was a news reporter for the Associated Press, the Erie Times and the Washington Evening Star before joining NASA at the agency's inception in 1958.

Haney pioneered a system of reporting NASA events as they happened, providing real-time information to the public and news media covering NASA's space missions. He delivered launch commentary on Gemini 3 and mission commentary during the early Apollo missions. He became chief of public affairs at the Manned Spacecraft Center, later renamed the Johnson Space Center in Houston and worked in the Mission Control Center during Gemini and Apollo flights. He left NASA in 1969.

"Paul was a true professional and one of the best in the business," said former NASA colleague Jack King, the voice of Apollo 11 launch. "He was a tremendous writer, an innovator and one of the good guys. We'll miss him."

Crew Gearing Up for Friday Spacewalk

The six-member Expedition 20 crew of the International Space Station focused Tuesday on preparations for an upcoming spacewalk.

Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Mike Barratt reviewed spacewalk procedures and configured their Orlan spacesuits in advance of a 5 ½ hour excursion slated to begin Friday at 2:45 a.m. EDT.


During the Russian spacewalk, Padalka and Barratt will prepare the Pirs docking compartment for the arrival of the Mini-Research Module 2, which will serve as an additional docking port for Russian vehicles. The spacewalkers will install a docking antenna to help guide the new module into place when it arrives at the station aboard an unpiloted Soyuz in November.

Additionally, Padalka and Barratt will take photographs of the Strela-2, a manually-operated crane used during Russian spacewalks, and retrieve a canister from the Biorisk space exposure experiment. Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata will assist the spacewalkers from inside the Zvezda service module.

In advance of Friday’s spacewalk, the hatches between the Pirs docking compartment and the ISS Progress 33 cargo craft were closed. Afterwards, the crew performed leak checks to verify that Pirs is ready to support the spacewalk.

Flight Engineers Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne spent time familiarizing themselves with their new home in space. The three new crew members arrived at the station May 29, inaugurating the long-awaited presence of a six-person crew and marking the first time all five international partners -- NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency – are represented by crew members aboard the station.

The Expedition 20 crew also had time scheduled for Earth observation and photography Tuesday. The crew was advised to direct its cameras towards England, where clear skies provided a rare opportunity to obtain detailed imagery of London. Also on the list were the English port cities of Falmouth and Portsmouth, from which Charles Darwin began and ended his historic voyage aboard HMS Beagle in the 19th century.

› Read more about Expedition 20
› View crew timelines

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2009 International Space Station Calendar

As part of NASA's celebration of the 10th anniversary of the International Space Station, the agency is offering a special 2009 calendar to teachers, as well as the general public.

The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station and highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about the international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998.

› Download calendar (5.3 Mb PDF)

Atlantis-747 Combo Arrives in Florida After Cross-Country Ferry Flight

NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft carrying the Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tuesday evening, concluding a more than 2,500-mile cross-country ferry flight from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California.

The piggyback pair left Edwards Monday morning and flew to Biggs Army Air Field adjacent to El Paso, Texas, where it remained overnight.

The 747-shuttle combo then flew to Lackland Air Force Base near San Antonio, Texas, Tuesday morning for refueling, and then continued on to Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi on the third leg of the cross-country journey. After refueling again at Columbus Tuesday afternoon, the modified Boeing 747 with Atlantis atop flew on to Kennedy, performing a low-level flyby of Florida's space coast beaches and the space center before touching down at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility runway at 6:53 p.m. EDT.

Atlantis landed at Edwards May 24 at the conclusion of the STS-125 mission to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescop