Two NASA instruments to map the lunar surface will launch on India's maiden moon voyage. The Moon Mineralogy Mapper will assess mineral resources, and the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar, or Mini-SAR, will map the polar regions and look for ice deposits. The Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO, is scheduled to launch its robotic Chandrayaan-1 on Oct. 22 from Sriharikota, India.

Data from the two instruments will contribute to NASA's increased understanding of the lunar environment as it implements the nation's space exploration policy, which calls for robotic and human missions to the moon.

"The opportunity to fly NASA instruments on Chandrayaan-1 undoubtedly will lead to important scientific discoveries," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said. "This exciting collaboration represents an important next step in what we hope to be a long and mutually beneficial relationship with India in future civil space exploration."

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer that will provide the first map of the entire lunar surface at high spatial and spectral resolution, revealing the minerals that make up the moon's surface. Scientists will use this information to answer questions about the moon's origin and geological development, as well as the evolution of terrestrial planets in the early solar system. The map also may be used by astronauts to locate resources, possibly including water, that can support exploration of the moon and beyond.

The Mini-SAR is a small imaging radar that will map the permanently shadowed lunar polar regions, including large areas never visible from Earth. The Mini-SAR data will be used to determine the location and distribution of water ice deposits on the moon. Data from the instrument will help scientists learn about the history and nature of objects hitting the moon, and the processes that throw material from the outer solar system into the inner planets.

The spacecraft also will carry four instruments and a small lunar impactor provided by ISRO, and four instruments from Europe. ISRO will launch the vehicle into a lunar polar orbit for a two-year mission.

In addition to the two science instruments, NASA will provide space communications support to Chandrayaan-1. The primary location for the NASA ground tracking station will be at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

For more information about Chandrayaan-1, visit:

For more information about the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, visit:

For more information about the Mini-SAR, visit:

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, or IBEX, successfully launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean at 1:47 p.m. EDT, Sunday. IBEX will be the first spacecraft to image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system.

The spacecraft separated from the third stage of its Pegasus launch vehicle at 1:53 p.m. and immediately began powering up components necessary to control onboard systems. The operations team is continuing to check out spacecraft subsystems.

"After a 45-day orbit raising and spacecraft checkout period, the spacecraft will start its exciting science mission," said IBEX mission manager Greg Frazier of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Just as an impressionist artist makes an image from countless tiny strokes of paint, IBEX will build an image of the outer boundary of the solar system from impacts on the spacecraft by high-speed particles called energetic neutral atoms. These particles are created in the boundary region when the 1-million mph solar wind blows out in all directions from the sun and plows into the gas of interstellar space. This region is important to study because it shields many of the dangerous cosmic rays that would flood the space around Earth.

"No one has seen an image of the interaction at the edge of our solar system where the solar wind collides with interstellar space," said IBEX Principal Investigator David McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "We know we're going to be surprised. It's a little like getting the first weather satellite images. Prior to that, you had to infer the global weather patterns from a limited number of local weather stations. But with the weather satellite images, you could see the hurricanes forming and the fronts developing and moving across the country."

IBEX is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers spacecraft. The Southwest Research Institute developed the IBEX mission with a team of national and international partners. Goddard manages the Explorers Program for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the IBEX mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ibex

This moon is doomed. Mars, named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons--Phobos and Deimos--whose names are derived from the Greek for fear and panic. These Martian moons may well be captured asteroids originating in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or perhaps from even more distant reaches of the solar system.

The larger moon, Phobos, is a cratered, asteroid-like object in this stunning color image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Phobos orbits so close to Mars that gravitational tidal forces are dragging it down. In 100 million years or so, Phobos likely will be shattered by stress caused by the relentless tidal forces, the debris forming a decaying ring around Mars.

Nine teams with rocket-powered vehicles will compete for $2 million in NASA prize money during the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, Oct. 24-25, at Las Cruces International Airport in New Mexico.

Teams must fly their vehicle, simulating a takeoff and landing on the moon, and repeat the task in a limited period of time. The competition provides a demanding test of navigation and control for the vehicles, as well as a demonstration of reusable rocket engine technology.

NASA provides the prize money for the competition as part of the Centennial Challenges Program. The X PRIZE Foundation manages the competition at no cost to NASA, receiving financial support from sponsors such as the Northrop Grumman Corp. and the state of New
Mexico.

Media planning to cover the event should contact Becky Ramsey at 202-349-1125 by 5 p.m. EDT, Oct. 20. Attendance at the competition is limited. The competition will webcast live at:

http://space.xprize.org/webcast

The Lunar Lander Challenge is one of seven NASA technology prize competitions. The Centennial Challenge prizes are offered to independent inventors who work without government support, including small businesses, student groups and individuals.

NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program Office manages the Centennial Challenges program. For more information about Centennial Challenges, visit:

http://ipp.nasa.gov/cc

NASA managers have adjusted the time for space shuttle Atlantis' rollback from Launch Pad 39A to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Oct. 20, to 7 a.m. EDT. Atlantis is expected to be in the Vehicle Assembly Building by about 2 p.m.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of Atlantis' move off the pad beginning Monday at 6:30 a.m. Video highlights of the rollback will air on NASA TV Video File.

Media are invited to a photo opportunity of the shuttle's move from the pad at 7 a.m. Monday, and must arrive at Kennedy's News Center by 6 a.m. for transportation to the viewing area. Because dates and times of this event are subject to change, updates are available by calling 321-867-2525.

Media badges may be picked up Friday, Oct. 17, at the Kennedy Badging Office on State Road 405, west of Gate 3, just past the Kennedy Visitor Complex.

The next space shuttle flight will be shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for launch Nov. 14. Endeavour is scheduled to move from Launch Pad 39B to pad 39A on Oct. 25.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about upcoming shuttle missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA has increased the maximum ordering value of a contract with Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies (SGT) Inc., by $49.2 million to support the Applied Engineering and Technology Directorate at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Under the Multidisciplinary Engineering and Technology Support services (METS) indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, SGT Inc. performs tasks necessary for the design, testing, verification and operations of space flight and ground system hardware and software.

Tasks include development and validation of new technologies to enable future space and science missions in support of the directorate's five engineering divisions: Mechanical Services, Information Systems, Instrument Systems and Technology, Electrical Engineering, and Mission Engineering and Systems Analysis.

Work under the contract provides critical support to a wide range of Goddard's missions and projects, including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, the Geostationary Environmental Operational Satellites-R, the Polar Operational Environmental Satellites, the Magnetospheric MultiScale Satellites, the Global Precipitation Measurement Observatory and the Glory Observatory.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Observations of two different systems -- both containing stellar-mass black holes -- are showing astronomers how much they have yet to learn. Coordinated observations of these systems using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer reveal surprising dips in optical brightness moments before high-energy flares erupt.

The systems are Swift J1753.5-0127 -- discovered by NASA's Swift satellite -- and GX 339-4. In them, a black hole and a normal star orbit a few million miles apart. That's less than 10 percent of the distance between Mercury and our sun.

Because the normal stars in these systems have evolved into bloated giants, a stream of matter spills toward the black hole and forms a disk of hot gas around it. As matter collides in this so-called accretion disk, it heats up to millions of degrees. Near the black hole, intense magnetic fields in the disk accelerate material into tight jets that flow in opposite directions away from the hole.

If that sounds familiar, it should. A similar process occurs in active galaxies and quasars, where black holes weighing millions of suns gobble up matter. Jets from active galaxies may extend tens of thousands of light-years. Because the process is thought to be the same despite the black hole's size, astronomers class systems like Swift J1753.5-0127 and GX 339-4 as "microquasars." Astronomers don't fully understand how black holes create these jets, so they study nearby microquasars for a detailed look at the process in miniature. "Microquasars are not only closer, but they change more rapidly," says Richard Mushotzky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Changes that may take a year to see in a quasar occur in these systems over a minute or less."

"The orbital period of Swift J1753.5-0127 -- just 3.2 hours -- is the fastest found for a likely black hole," says team member Martin Durant at the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands. The orbital period of GX 339-4, by contrast, is about 1.7 days. "Yet the two systems are similar in their X-ray properties," he notes.
Astronomers had thought that the cooler visible-light emission comes from so far out in a black hole's accretion disk that it reflects little of the main action. "We were wrong, and these systems prove it," Durant says. "The optical and X-ray emissions are intrinsically linked, probably by the same immense magnetic fields that can hurl material into light-years-long jets."

To study the systems, an international team led by Poshak Gandhi of Japan's RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Research watched them simultaneously using two different instruments, one on the ground and one in space. A high-speed camera called ULTRACAM on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large telescope captured visible light changes. ULTRACAM recorded up to 20 images a second.

NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer captured the X-ray variations. The satellite can record changes in X-ray output that occur in millionths of a second. "Being able to take readings at high speed and coordinate between NASA's satellite and the ESO's biggest telescopes gives us a unique opportunity to seeing what's going on in the systems," Durant says.

The data show that the light output typically drops just before the X-ray output undergoes a large spike, which mean the two emissions are strongly connected. "The rapid variations in the X-ray and visible light output must have some common origin, and one very close to the black hole itself," Gandhi concludes. "The cool thing about discovering such patterns that stand out amidst chaotic fluctuations of light is that they give us a new handle on understanding the underlying physics."

“Strong magnetic fields represent the best candidate for the dominant physical process,” says team member Jon Miller at the University of Michigan. Magnetic fields can soak up energy liberated close to the black hole and store it. This energy is released either as multi-million-degree, X-ray-emitting gas or as streams of charged particles traveling near the speed of light. How the black holes divide the energy between these two forms determines the characteristic pattern of X-ray and optical changes astronomers observe.

"These kinds of studies are mapping the accretion disks around black holes," says Mushotzky. "Right now, astronomers aren't sure what's happening where."

The Mars Phoenix Lander's robotic arm successfully delivered soil into oven six of the lander's thermal and evolved-gas analyzer (TEGA) on Monday, Oct. 13, or Martian day (sol) 137 of the mission.

The delivery to oven six is a "bonus round" for Phoenix, as the mission goal requirement of filling and analyzing soil in at least three of the ovens has already been satisfied. Six of eight ovens have been used to date.

TEGA's tiny ovens heat the soil to as high as 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius). The lab's "nose," or mass spectrometer, then "smells" and analyzes the gases derived from heating the soil. Mission scientists will continue to research and analyze the soil samples in the coming months, long after Phoenix stops operating on the surface.

Now in Martian late-summer, Phoenix is gradually getting less power as the sun drops below the horizon.

"My entire team is working very hard to make use of the power we have before it disappears," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, the lead scientist for TEGA. "Every time we fill an oven, we potentially learn more about Mars' geochemistry."

NASA's Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

When comet Holmes unexpectedly erupted in 2007, professional and amateur astronomers around the world turned their telescopes toward the spectacular event. Their quest was to find out why the comet had suddenly exploded.

Observations taken of the comet after the explosion by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope deepen the mystery, showing oddly behaving streamers in the shell of dust surrounding the nucleus of the comet. The data also offer a rare look at the material liberated from within the nucleus, and confirm previous findings from NASA's Stardust and Deep Impact missions.

"The data we got from Spitzer do not look like anything we typically see when looking at comets," said Bill Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Reach is lead investigator of the Spitzer observations. "The comet Holmes explosion gave us a rare glimpse at the inside of a comet nucleus." The findings were presented at the 40th meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences in Ithaca, N.Y.

Every six years, comet 17P/Holmes speeds away from Jupiter and heads inward toward the sun, traveling the same route typically without incident. However, twice in the last 116 years, in November 1892 and October 2007, comet Holmes exploded as it approached the asteroid belt, and brightened a million-fold overnight.

In an attempt to understand these odd occurrences, astronomers pointed NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope at the comet in November 2007 and March 2008. By using Spitzer's infrared spectrograph instrument, Reach was able to gain valuable insights into the composition of Holmes' solid interior. Like a prism spreading visible-light into a rainbow, the spectrograph breaks up infrared light from the comet into its component parts, revealing the fingerprints of various chemicals.

In November of 2007, Reach noticed a lot of fine silicate dust, or crystallized grains smaller than sand, like crushed gems. He noted that this particular observation revealed materials similar to those seen around other comets where grains have been treated violently, including NASA's Deep Impact mission, which smashed a projectile into comet Tempel 1; NASA's Stardust mission, which swept particles from comet Wild 2 into a collector at 13,000 miles per hour (21,000 kilometers per hour), and the outburst of comet Hale-Bopp in 1995.

"Comet dust is very sensitive, meaning that the grains are very easily destroyed, said Reach. "We think the fine silicates are produced in these violent events by the destruction of larger particles originating inside the comet nucleus."

When Spitzer observed the same portion of the comet again in March 2008, the fine-grained silicate dust was gone and only larger particles were present. "The March observation tells us that there is a very small window for studying composition of comet dust after a violent event like comet Holmes' outburst," said Reach.

Comet Holmes not only has unusual dusty components, it also does not look like a typical comet. According to Jeremie Vaubaillon, a colleague of Reach's at Caltech, pictures snapped from the ground shortly after the outburst revealed streamers in the shell of dust surrounding the comet. Scientists suspect they were produced after the explosion by fragments escaping the comet's nucleus.

In November 2007, the streamers pointed away from the sun, which seemed natural because scientists believed that radiation from the sun was pushing these fragments straight back. However, when Spitzer imaged the same streamers in March 2008, they were surprised to find them still pointing in the same direction as five months before, even though the comet had moved and sunlight was arriving from a different location. "We have never seen anything like this in a comet before. The extended shape still needs to be fully understood," said Vaubaillon.

He notes that the shell surrounding the comet also acts peculiarly. The shape of the shell did not change as expected from November 2007 to March 2008. Vaubaillon said this is because the dust grains seen in March 2008 are relatively large, approximately one millimeter in size, and thus harder to move.

"If the shell was comprised of smaller dust grains, it would have changed as the orientation of the sun changes with time," said Vaubaillon. "This Spitzer image is very unique. No other telescope has seen comet Holmes in this much detail, five months after the explosion."

"Like people, all comets are a little different. We've been studying comets for hundreds of years – 116 years in the case of comet Holmes - but still do not really understand them," said Reach. "However, with the Spitzer observations and data from other telescopes, we are getting closer."

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 the California Institute of Technology, also 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 .

About three times a second, a 10,000-year-old stellar corpse sweeps a beam of gamma-rays toward Earth. Discovered by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the object, called a pulsar, is the first one known that only "blinks" in gamma rays.

"This is the first example of a new class of pulsars that will give us fundamental insights into how these collapsed stars work," said Stanford University's Peter Michelson, principal investigator for Fermi's Large Area Telescope in Palo Alto, Calif.

The gamma-ray-only pulsar lies within a supernova remnant known as CTA 1, which is located about 4,600 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Its lighthouse-like beam sweeps Earth's way every 316.86 milliseconds. The pulsar, which formed about 10,000 years ago, emits 1,000 times the energy of our sun.

A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star, the crushed core left behind when a massive sun explodes. Astronomers have cataloged nearly 1,800 pulsars. Although most were found through their pulses at radio wavelengths, some of these objects also beam energy in other forms, including visible light and X-rays. However, the source in CTA 1 only pulses at gamma-ray energies.

"We think the region that emits the pulsed gamma rays is broader than that responsible for pulses of lower-energy radiation," explained team member Alice Harding at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The radio beam probably never swings toward Earth, so we never see it. But the wider gamma-ray beam does sweep our way."

Scientists think CTA 1 is only the first of a large population of similar objects.

"The Large Area Telescope provides us with a unique probe of the galaxy's pulsar population, revealing objects we would not otherwise even know exist," says Fermi project scientist Steve Ritz, also at Goddard.

The pulsar in CTA 1 is not located at the center of the remnant's expanding gaseous shell. Supernova explosions can be asymmetrical, often imparting a "kick" that sends the neutron star careening through space. Based on the remnant's age and the pulsar's distance from its center, astronomers believe the neutron star is moving at about a million miles per hour -- a typical speed.

Fermi's Large Area Telescope scans the entire sky every three hours and detects photons with energies ranging from 20 million to more than 300 billion times the energy of visible light. The instrument sees about one gamma ray every minute from CTA 1, enough for scientists to piece together the neutron star's pulsing behavior, its rotation period, and the rate at which it is slowing down.

A pulsar's beams arise because neutron stars possess intense magnetic fields and rotate rapidly. Charged particles stream outward from the star's magnetic poles at nearly the speed of light to create the gamma-ray beams Fermi sees. Because the beams are powered by the neutron star's rotation, they gradually slow the pulsar's spin. In the case of CTA 1, the rotation period is increasing by about one second every 87,000 years.

"This observation shows the power of the Large Area Telescope," Michelson said. "It is so sensitive that we can now discover new types of objects just by observing their gamma-ray emissions."

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S.

A paper about the new pulsar appears in the Oct. 16 edition of Science Express. For images and animations associated with this release, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/gr_pulsar.html

During the night of Oct. 15, Space Telescope Operations Control Center engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center turned on and checked out Side ‘B’ of Hubble’s Science Instrument Control and Data Handling (SIC&DH) system.

Subsequently, the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) instruments were retrieved from safe mode to establish that each has a working interface to the Side B SIC&DH. The instruments were then commanded back into safe mode, and will remain in that state until the SI C&DH begins issuing commands to them later today.

Around noon today commands to recover Hubble’s science instruments from their safe modes will begin and internal exposures and calibrations of the telescope’s science instruments will occur before midnight Thursday.

Scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore should complete their review of the internal exposures by noon on Friday, October 17. This procedure involves collecting and comparing baseline exposures previously supported by Side A of the SI C&DH to new exposures supported by Side B. This review will be one last check of the “transparency” (non-impact) of switching to the redundant spacecraft electronics the Hubble team activated on Wednesday.

A full schedule of science observations with the WFPC2 camera, ACS’ Solar Blind Channel camera, and the Fine Guidance Sensors will resume early Friday morning.

NASA Advisory Council Chairman Harrison "Jack" H. Schmitt announced Thursday he was leaving the council. Fellow council member Kenneth Ford will succeed him as chairman effective immediately. The NASA Advisory Council provides advice to the NASA administrator on important program and policy matters related to the U.S. space program.

"My service as chairman of Administrator Mike Griffin's advisory council has been one of my most rewarding professional experiences," Schmitt said. "The members of the council represent the finest and most diverse group of advisors that could be assembled, and I am greatly indebted to them for the stimulating interaction and productive deliberations we have had during the last three years. The administrator, NASA and the nation have been well served by their dedication and hard work, and I am certain that even more productive activity will take place under the guidance of the new chairman, Ken Ford."

The council consists of experts from various fields offering knowledge of the multitude of functions within the agency. Council recommendations and advice are critical to the agency's timely strategic and tactical decisions about NASA's mission.

"Sen. Schmitt has provided invaluable advice and leadership for over three years as Chair of the NASA Advisory Council," Griffin said. "He was instrumental in reformulating the NAC to fulfill its proper role as NASA's primary external advisory group. The experience he has brought to the NAC as a scientist, astronaut and former U.S. senator has been of tremendous value to me in helping to manage the agency. I am deeply grateful for both his long friendship and his commitment of service to NASA and the nation."

Schmitt has served as chair of the NASA Advisory Council since November 2005. Under his leadership, the council developed and submitted more than 100 recommendations to the NASA administrator in the areas of aeronautics, audit and finance, exploration, human capital, science, and space operations. These recommendations significantly contributed to NASA's implementation of the agency's new space exploration plans.

Schmitt also was the primary advocate behind the council's February 2007 workshop that produced 35 recommendations covering exploration science, lunar science, lunar-based science, and other research enabled by the emerging exploration architecture for returning humans to the moon by 2020. The workshop was a key part of the council's obligation to advise the administrator about science associated with the nation's return to the moon while making its findings directly available to NASA's exploration and science directorates. Schmitt also led the council's initiative to build a strong relationship with the National Institute of Health and other entities for the utilization of the International Space Station as a national laboratory.

Schmitt is a geologist, former NASA astronaut and former U.S. senator. He and his Apollo 17 crewmate, Eugene Cernan, were the last two people to walk on the moon.

Kenneth Ford has been a member of the NASA Advisory Council since June 2007, serving on the Exploration Committee. He is founder and director of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a statewide not-for-profit research institute of the state university system of Florida. The institute features world-class scientists and engineers investigating a broad range of topics related to building technological systems that are aimed at amplifying and extending
human cognitive and perceptual capacities.

In January 1997, NASA asked Ford to develop and direct its new Center of Excellence in Information Technology at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif. He served as both associate center director and director of the Center of Excellence. Ford was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in July 1999.

Ford is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and six books. His research interests include artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human-centered computing, and entrepreneurship in government and academia. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Tulane University. Ford is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and was the 2008 recipient of the Robert S. Englemore Memorial Award for his work in artificial intelligence.

In 2005, Ford was appointed to the Air Force Science Advisory Board. President George W. Bush nominated Ford to serve a six-year term on the National Science Board in October 2002.

For more information about the NASA Advisory Council, visit:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oer/nac

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

The following is a statement by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin after the signing by the president of the NASA Authorization Act of 2008:

"I'm grateful to the president for his signature on the NASA Authorization Act of 2008. The major provisions of this authorization bill affirm Congress' support for the broad goals of the president's space exploration policy, including the return of American astronauts to the moon, exploration of Mars and other destinations."

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

A robot rover designed for prospecting within lunar craters has to operate in continual darkness at extremely cold temperatures with little power. The moon has one-sixth the gravity of Earth, so a lightweight rover will have a difficult job resisting drilling forces and remaining stable. Lunar soil, known as regolith, is abrasive and compact, so if a drill strikes ice, it likely will have the consistency of concrete. Meeting these challenges in one system requires ingenuity and teamwork.

Engineers used this lunar rover to demonstrate a drill capable of digging samples of regolith. The demonstration used a laser light camera to select a site for drilling then commanded the four-wheeled rover to lower the drill and collect three-foot samples of soil and rock.

Image at Top: This robot shares some features with the lunar truck, but is equipped with a drill designed to find water and oxygen-rich soil on the moon. Credit: Carnegie Mellon University.

For more information about NASA's plans for a lunar outpost, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

NASA is practicing for future lunar road trips, and reporters are invited to observe the activities. The annual Desert RATS, or Research and Technology Studies, field test will be held in Arizona during October, and NASA will host a media day on Oct. 24. The tests help NASA engineers identify transportation and spacewalking needs for NASA's return to the moon by 2020 and preparation for human journeys to Mars.

This year's tests will demonstrate an enclosed configuration for a lunar rover NASA has been developing since 2007. The rover has six independent wheels that can each turn a full 360 degrees and lift off the ground for maneuvering around and over obstacles. The addition of the pressurized module to the rover allows the crew to drive in shirtsleeves, only donning spacesuits to leave the vehicle for scientific observations or exploration tasks.

For this year's tests, two teams of one astronaut and one geologist will conduct one-day and three-day drives of the rover with and without the pressurized cabin. Without the cabin, the crew operates the rover from rotating driving turrets while wearing spacesuits to protect them from the moon's dusty, airless environment.

Reporters will be able to observe and photograph the small pressurized rover and interview engineers involved with its development. For more information, including an agenda, and to R.S.V.P., reporters must contact Ashley Edwards at 202-358-1756 no later than Wednesday, Oct. 22. Reporters with reservations will meet at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Flagstaff, Ariz., by 7 a.m. MST for a NASA escort to the test site, where access is restricted. NASA requires a letter of assignment on company letterhead for credentials.

Organizations involved in the test are NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston; NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida; the Smithsonian Institution of Washington, the U.S. Geological Survey, in Flagstaff; Arizona State University of Tempe; the Mars Institute in Moffett Field, Calif.; and the Lunar Planetary Institute in Houston.

For more information about the lunar rover, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/main/lunar_truck.html

For more information about NASA's plans to return to the moon, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

NASA will hold a media teleconference on Friday, Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. EDT, to preview the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission. The spacecraft may confirm if the sun's protective bubble surrounding our solar system, called the heliosphere, is about to shrink and weaken. IBEX also will be the first spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space.

The heliosphere acts as a shield for our solar system, warding off most of the galactic cosmic rays. Recent data indicate the solar wind's global pressure is the lowest seen since the beginning of the space age.

IBEX is set to launch Oct. 19 from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Panelists will be:
- David McComas, IBEX principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio
- Nathan Schwadron, co-investigator and IBEX Science Operations Center lead at Boston University
- Stephen Fuselier, co-investigator and IBEX-Lo Sensor lead at Lockheed-Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
- Eric Christian, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Reporters should call 1-888-323-5257 and use the passcode "IBEX" to participate in the teleconference. International media should call 1-415-228-4881. Supporting information for the briefing will be available at the start of the teleconference on the Web at:

http://www.nasa.gov/ibex

The astronauts, cosmonauts and spaceflight participant aboard the International Space Station will participate in a news conference at 12:20 p.m. CDT, Monday, Oct. 20. Reporters at participating NASA centers may ask questions.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, who have been on the station since April, are scheduled to return to Earth with spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, a U.S. citizen, in the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft Oct. 23, landing in central Kazakhstan. Garriott, who flew under an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, arrived at the station with Fincke and Lonchakov.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, who have been on the station since April, are scheduled to return to Earth with U.S. spaceflight participant Richard Garriott in the Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft Oct. 23, landing in central Kazakhstan. Garriott arrived at the station with Fincke and Lonchakov.

A change of command ceremony between the two crews will be broadcast on NASA Television at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

The first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space will be launched on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 1:48 p.m. EDT, during a launch window that extends from 1:44 p.m. to 1:52 p.m. The two-year mission will begin from the U.S. Army's Reagan test site at Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific Ocean.

Called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, the spacecraft will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and capture images of processes taking place at the farthest reaches of the solar system. Known as the interstellar boundary, this region marks where the solar system meets interstellar space.

Carrying the IBEX spacecraft into orbit will be a Pegasus XL rocket built by Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va. The Pegasus will be deployed from the Orbital Sciences L-1011 aircraft over the Pacific Ocean about 125 miles north of Kwajalein. The spacecraft also was built by Orbital Sciences.

Live coverage of the IBEX launch will be provided via the Web. No live NASA Television coverage is planned. The live streaming video of the countdown and launch will be available on the NASA home page at:

http://www.nasa.gov

Audio coverage of the launch will be available at 321-867-1220, 1240, 1260, and 7135. Streaming video and audio coverage will begin at 12:15 p.m. on Oct. 19. It will conclude after spacecraft separation from the Pegasus, approximately 12 minutes after launch.

For more information about IBEX, including a launch blog, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ibex

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, NASA will premiere the documentary "50 Years of Exploration: The Golden Anniversary of NASA" on NASA Television's Public and Education channels Wednesday, Oct. 15, at 9 p.m. EDT.

Neil Armstrong hosts the 90-minute documentary that features film and video highlights of the agency's first half-century. Included are insights and perspectives from astronauts, scientists, engineers and others whose contributions have helped shepherd America's space program.

Interviews include former NASA astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz, author Ray Bradbury, NASA scientist and Nobel Prize winner John Mather, and presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

"50 Years of Exploration: The Golden Anniversary of NASA" is a production of NASA Television. It will be re-broadcast on NASA TV's Public and Education channels at 1, 5 and 9 p.m. EDT on both Thursday, Oct. 16, and Friday, Oct. 17.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's 50th Anniversary, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/50th

For more information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to roll back from Launch Pad 39A to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, Oct. 20, to await launch on its mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. First motion of the shuttle is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT.

Atlantis' targeted launch on Oct. 10 was delayed when a system that transfers science data from the orbiting observatory to Earth malfunctioned on Sept. 27. The new target launch date is under review.

The fully assembled space shuttle Atlantis, consisting of the orbiter, external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, is mounted on a Mobile Launcher Platform and will be delivered to the Vehicle Assembly Building atop a crawler transporter. The crawler will travel slower than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey, which is expected to take approximately six hours.

NASA Television will provide live coverage of Atlantis' rollback beginning Monday at 6:30 a.m. Video highlights of the rollback will air on NASA TV Video File.

Media are invited to a photo opportunity of the shuttle's move from the pad at 6 a.m. Monday. As dates and times of this event are subject to change, updates are available by calling 321-867-2525.

Media must arrive at Kennedy's News Center by 5 a.m. for transportation to the viewing area. Foreign news media accreditation for this event is closed. U.S. media without permanent Kennedy Space Center credentials must apply for accreditation online by 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16, at:

https://media.ksc.nasa.gov

Badges may be picked up between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 17 at the Kennedy Badging Office on State Road 405, west of Gate 3, just past the Kennedy Visitor's Complex.

The next space shuttle flight will be shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for launch Nov. 14. Endeavour is scheduled to move from Launch Pad 39B to Pad 39A on Oct. 25.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about upcoming shuttle missions, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Jon Giorgini, an engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has received the prestigious Harold Masursky Award, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences.

The Masursky Award recognizes individuals for outstanding service to planetary science and exploration through engineering, managerial, programmatic or public service activities. Giorgini runs JPL's Horizons system, an online database that can generate locations and orbits for the almost half-million known celestial bodies in our solar system.

The award citation states in part: A specialist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Jon developed and implemented the on-line Horizons system that is used by the international scientific community to generate accurate ephemeris information for the 450,000 currently known objects in the solar system. This includes the sun, planets, their moons, asteroids, comets, and many spacecraft... This system is used by observers, researchers, and mission planners to plan observations and track the targets of space and ground-based telescopes, as well as spacecraft. Since its inception in October 1996, the Horizons system has responded to more than ten million requests (on average, more than 2200 per day) received from 300,000 unique locations.

Giorgini, a senior engineer in JPL's Solar System Dynamics Group, was a navigator for the Magellan spacecraft during its mapping of Venus (1991-1993), developing and implementing the new navigation methodology for the first interplanetary aerobrake. He created JPL's "On-Site Orbit Determination" system -- software used at the Goldstone and Arecibo planetary radar sites to track and update the orbits of radar targets. He then returned to navigation for the Mars Global Surveyor aerobrake planning and interplanetary phases (1995-1997), followed by the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission navigation and radio science teams (1997-2001). As a member of the asteroid radar observing team (1994-present), he is responsible for orbit analysis and predictions used to operate radar tracking systems at Goldstone and Arecibo. He has worked on more than 290 asteroid radar targets since 1994 and is co-discoverer of 27 asteroid satellites. He discovered the potential Earth impact hazard posed by the asteroid 1950 DA, and developed methods to assess dynamics and impact potential over centuries. Giorgini is author or co-author of 99 research papers and four book chapters.

Giorgini's outside activities have included climbs of Mount Kilimanjaro and Vinson Massif, the highest mountains in Africa and Antarctica. He has practiced martial arts and kickboxing for the last 22 years.

Giorgini's previous awards include the JPL 2007 Ed Stone Outstanding Research Paper Award, a NASA Space Act Award and a NASA Exceptional Service Medal. The International Astronomical Union named asteroid "6775 Giorgini" in his honor in 1996.

Giorgini has a Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University, Ames; and a Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering, specializing in celestial mechanics, from the University of Texas, Austin. He has worked at JPL for 17 years.

For more information on JPL, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .

The longest-serving of six spacecraft now studying Mars is up to new tricks for a third two-year extension of its mission to examine the most Earthlike of known foreign planets.

NASA's Mars Odyssey is altering its orbit to gain even better sensitivity for its infrared mapping of Martian minerals. During the mission extension through September 2010, it will also point its camera with more flexibility than it has ever used before. Odyssey reached Mars in 2001.

The orbit adjustment will allow Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System to look down at sites when it's mid-afternoon, rather than late afternoon. The multipurpose camera will take advantage of the infrared radiation emitted by the warmer rocks to provide clues to the rocks' identities.

"This will allow us to do much more sensitive detection and mapping of minerals," said Odyssey Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The mission's orbit design before now used a compromise between what works best for the Thermal Emission Imaging System and what works best for another instrument, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer.

On commands from its operations team at JPL and at Denver-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Odyssey fired thrusters for nearly 6 minutes on Sept. 30, the final day of the mission's second two-year extension.

"This was our biggest maneuver since 2002, and it went well," said JPL's Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey mission manager. "The spacecraft is in good health. The propellant supply is adequate for operating through at least 2015."

Odyssey's orbit is synchronized with the sun. The local solar time has been about 5 p.m. at whatever spot on Mars Odyssey flew over as it made its dozen daily passes from between the north pole region to the south pole region for the past five years. (Likewise, the local time has been about 5 a.m. under the track of the spacecraft during the south-to-north leg of each orbit.)

The push imparted by the Sept. 30 maneuver will gradually change that synchronization over the next year or so. Its effect is that the time of day on the ground when Odyssey is overhead is now getting earlier by about 20 seconds per day. A follow-up maneuver, probably in late 2009 when the overpass time is between 2:30 and 3:00 p.m., will end the progression toward earlier times.

While aiding performance of the Thermal Emission Imaging System, the shift to mid-afternoon is expected to stop the use of one of three instruments in Odyssey's Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite. The suite's gamma ray detector needs a later-hour orbit to avoid overheating of a critical component. The suite's neutron spectrometer and high-energy neutron detector are expected to keep operating.

The Gamma Ray Spectrometer provided dramatic discoveries of water-ice near the surface throughout much of high-latitude Mars, the impetus for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission. The gamma ray detector has also mapped global distribution of many elements, such as iron, silicon and potassium, a high science priority for the first and second extensions of the Odyssey mission. A panel of planetary scientists assembled by NASA recommended this year that Odyssey make the orbit adjustment to get the best science return from the mission in coming years.

Increased sensitivity for identifying surface minerals is a key science goal for the mission extension beginning this month. Also, the Odyssey team plans to begin occasionally aiming the camera away from the straight-down pointing that has been used throughout the mission. This will allow the team to fill in some gaps in earlier mapping and also create some stereo, three-dimensional imaging.

Odyssey will continue providing crucial support for Mars surface missions as well as conducting its own investigations. It has relayed to Earth nearly all data returned from NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity. It shares with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the relay role for Phoenix. It has made targeted observations for evaluating candidate landing sites.

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, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. Investigators at Arizona State University, Tempe, 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 .

A new crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station rocketed into orbit early Sunday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. U.S. astronaut E. Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and Richard Garriott, a U.S. computer game developer, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:01 a.m. CDT.

Fincke, the only American to launch twice on a Soyuz, will serve as commander of the six-month Expedition 18 mission. The mission's main focus will be preparing the station to house six crew members on long-duration missions.

The Expedition 18 crew is scheduled to arrive at the station Tuesday, with docking to the Zarya module scheduled for 3:33 a.m. After the hatches are opened, Expedition 17 Commander Sergey Volkov and spaceflight participant Garriott will become the first children of previous space fliers to greet each other in orbit. Garriott is the son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who was a member of the Skylab-3 crew in 1973. Volkov is the son of veteran cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, who flew three Soyuz missions.

Garriott will spend nine days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He will return to Earth on Oct. 23 with Volkov and Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, who have worked aboard the station since April 10.

Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff, who arrived at the station in June, will be replaced in November by NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus. Space shuttle Endeavour will deliver Magnus and return Chamitoff to Earth.

Endeavour's November STS-126 mission also will deliver equipment to the station necessary for supporting a six-member crew, including a water recycling system, sleeping quarters, a new kitchen, a second toilet, and an advanced exercise device.

Although they will be in space on Election Day, Chamitoff and Fincke have arranged for the chance to cast their ballots from the station.

For more information about the space station and how to view it from Earth, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For more information about upcoming space shuttle missions and their crews, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA will host a media teleconference at 12:30 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, Oct. 14, to brief reporters about the status of efforts to revive the data handling unit that failed on the Hubble Space Telescope in late-September. The failure halted almost all science operations on the orbiting observatory.

A meeting will be held at NASA Headquarters on Tuesday morning to review plans for transitioning operations to the redundant "B" side of Hubble's data handling unit. This equipment has not been used or tested since Hubble's launch in 1990. If approved, ground controllers could begin the process of sending commands to Hubble as early as Wednesday, Oct. 15, to begin the transition. The process could take as long as 48 hours to complete.

The briefing participants are:
- Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
- Art Whipple, manager of the Hubble Space Telescope Systems Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters in the U.S. should call 1-866-556-1095 and use the pass code "Hubble." International reporters should call 1-212-547-0420.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

NASA will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 10, to brief reporters after a meeting held by the agency's administrator concerning the Mars Science Laboratory, or MSL. The meeting is to discuss technical and budget issues.

The mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, will assess a variety of scientific objectives, including whether Mars had, or has today, an environment able to support microbial life. The rover will carry the largest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the Martian surface.

The briefing participants are:
- James Green, director of the Planetary Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
- Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters
- Michael Meyer, Mars Program lead scientist at NASA Headquarters

To participate in the teleconference, reporters in the U.S. should call 1-866-398-6118 and use the pass code "MSL." International reporters should call 1-517-308-9407.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about MSL, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

NASA will hold a series of news briefings on Monday, Nov. 3, to preview the upcoming space shuttle Endeavour mission that will outfit the International Space Station for six-person crews.

NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the briefings from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. News media questions also will be taken from other participating NASA locations.

Endeavour's 15-day flight, designated STS-126, is targeted for launch Nov. 14. The flight will deliver supplies and equipment to prepare the station for six-person crews starting next spring. The mission also includes four spacewalks to service the two Solar Array Rotary Joints that allow the arrays to track the sun.

U.S. reporters planning to attend the briefings in Houston must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 by Oct. 29 to arrange for credentials. Journalists who are foreign nationals must contact the Johnson newsroom by Oct. 16.

Also on Nov. 3, Endeavour's seven astronauts will be available for round-robin interviews at Johnson. Reporters must contact Gayle Frere at 281-483-8645 by Oct. 29 to reserve an interview opportunity.

Chris Ferguson will command Endeavour's crew, which includes Pilot Eric Boe, and Mission Specialists Donald Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough, and Sandra Magnus. The spacewalkers will be Stefanyshyn-Piper, Bowen and Kimbrough. Magnus will remain on the station as flight engineer and science officer of the Expedition 18 crew. Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will return to Earth on Endeavour to conclude six months on the station.

Briefing times (all times CST):

7 a.m.: Video B-roll feed on NASA TV

8 - 9:30 a.m.: Program Overview Space Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon International Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini

9:30 - 11 a.m.: Mission Overview STS-126 Lead Flight Director Mike Sarafin International Space Station Lead Flight Director Ginger Kerrick Launch Package Manager Kevin Engelbert

11 a.m.: NASA TV Video File

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.: Spacewalk Overview Briefing Lead Extravehicular Activity Officer John Ray

1 - 2 p.m.: STS-126 Crew News Conference

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

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about the STS-126 mission and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

For the latest information on the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station