NASA Wants Your Input

NASA has implemented an online brainstorming tool, open to the general public, seeking to improve openness, transparency, participation, and collaboration. Here is your chance to participate in developing the future of America's space program.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of openness and transparency. I'm also a fan of collaboration in science and government. In the United States, we live in a participative democracy, meaning that citizens are encouraged to get involved in government, from writing your Congressman to serving in the military to running for office. NASA's implementation of a system like this will encourage participation in government, which is a good thing.

The brainstorming system that they are using, by IdeaScale, allows for ideas to be submitted and voted upon by registered users, as well as allowing comments (like a blog) for the purpose of opening discussions. And if you have an account with Google, Yahoo!, WordPress, or AOL, you can log in by authenticating against that account.

So what are you waiting for? Go to the site and tell NASA what they need to be doing!

The New (Improved?) NASA

NOTE: Cross-posted to Getting There From Here.

If you follow space-related news, then by now you are surely aware that the White House released President Obama's budget plan for 2011-2015 today, and there is no funding for the Constellation Program (the Vision for Space Exploration created under Bush in 2003). So what does that mean? Everybody has their own opinion, but here's mine:

First, it means that the more than $8 billion spent over the past 5-6 years is basically wasted money (along with an additional $2.5 billion that will be spent to close down the program). A lot of people thought that Constellation was a flawed program—including me—but that's a lot of money to flush down the toilet. Sure, not all of it was wasted money. For example, we produced a few new scientific and technical innovations out of that money, but spending $8-9 billion to get what little we got (a single demo flight with non-representational hardware) was a bit crazy. And if Constellation had continued the way it was going, it would have been massively over-budget and late on delivering on its goals. Still, that means that the government will have spent more than $3,500 for each man, woman, and child in this country on a program that effectively accomplished very little.

At the same time, a new generation of rocket scientists got some first-hand experience at designing and building new (or at least updated versions of old) rocketry systems. Again, a pretty expensive price to pay to get some people some good experience, but given that the average age of our rocket scientists has been climbing since the 1960s, that's not really a bad thing.

But that's what it means for the past. What does it mean for the future? Well, that's pretty tough to say, since predicting the future is always a challenge. But here is what is being proposed: NASA will abandon low-earth orbit (LEO) to companies like SpaceX, encouraging and financially supporting a commercial space industry. Instead, NASA will focus on the heavy lift programs necessary to get us to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.

NASA will spend $7.8 billion between 2011 and 2015 on advanced technology demonstration programs to explore more advanced exploration options. This includes in-orbit propellant transfer, closed-loop life support, automated maneuvering and docking systems, and inflatable space modules (similar to the ones that Bigelow Aerospace is experimenting with... perhaps the new focus on partnerships will allow NASA and Bigelow to work together on these). All of these technologies will be essential to exploring our solar system and beyond.

In addition, NASA will spend $3.1 billion on research into new propulsion systems (hopefully solar sails and VASIMR will be included in this spending) and another $3 billion on robotic missions to pave the way for human exploration.

All of this means that—with the Space Shuttle fleet retiring later this year—NASA does not have any way to get crew into orbit other than to pay $51 million per flight to the Russian Space Agency for launches aboard Soyuz capsules. To alleviate this, NASA is encouraging commercial spaceflight companies to pick up the slack by allocating $5.8 billion for crew launches provided by commercial operators. With the money already allocated to SpaceX and Orbital as part of the COTS program, they have an advantage over other small operators. But with that much money on the line, you can bet that Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others (including, perhaps, the joint venture United Space Alliance, which operates the Space Shuttle program) will jump into the fray with commercial offerings.

And with the cancellation of Constellation and the end of the massively-expensive Space Shuttle program, more money will be available for basic scientific reasearch in the areas of Earth Observation and Astrophysics. Most interesting to me are added funding to get Mars Science Laboratory launched in 2011 and a probably 2014 launch for the James Webb Space Telescope.

I personally like NASA's renewed focus on research and development, while letting business enterprises commercialize the results on behalf of the government. Too much of NASA's budget over the past two decades has been spent on the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. While those programs have provided benefits (notably in the areas of living and working in orbit, including orbital construction methods), the costs once again far outweighed the benefits. The new plan will hopefully shake a lot of complacency out of the system and encourage creative thinking and innovation, while also spurring commercial development of space travel and exploration.

Be a Martian

Regular readers of this blog (if there are any) know that I'm a big fan of things that people like you and me can do to help advance science and technology. Well, now thanks to Microsoft and NASA, there's another opportunity, and this one is very cool.

Microsoft and NASA have teamed together to create Be a Martian, a new website where you can help contribute to our understanding of Mars. By participating in the site—which largely consists of combing through the vast quantity of Mars images and classifying them, as well as participating in surveys and discussions—you can earn badges and "Reputation Points". But more importantly, you can help our understanding of our red neighbor... the knowledge you help provide may give some indication of where to look for microbial life, past or present. It may help find suitable locations for manned missions or even long-term colonies.

I haven't had a chance to do much other than view a few videos so far, but it looks very interesting, and I've bookmarked it so I can return this weekend and spend some time contributing to the future of science and technology.

Orion First Launch Date Slips One Year

As part of the government's Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), NASA had proposed to create a new launch system called Orion to enter use by 2015 as part of the Constellation program. Whatever you may think of Orion (and there are plenty of detractors) this is the launch system that—for better or worse—NASA will be using post-shuttle. With the space shuttle retiring in 2010 (or 2011, depending on Congressional priorities and willingness to take risks with a 30+ year old launch system) there will be a gap in the United States' ability to launch astronauts into orbit until Orion is available.

The deadline in the VSE for Orion's first launch is March 2015, but NASA always thought they could get it done a little earlier, possibly as early as 2013, in an attempt to shorten the gap in launch capabilities. Unfortunately, their hopes have now slipped to September of 2014 as the earliest possible launch date for Orion due to insufficient funding from Congress.

My opinion, though, is that NASA won't hit that September 2014 date, or even the Congressionally-mandated March 2015 date due to the amount of work still to be done and the uncertainties that crop up along the way. A while back it was revealed that the Orion launcher has problems with vibrations that could possibly shake the astronauts to death. The solution they came up with involved—get this—using springs to dampen the vibration. That's right, it took them six months to come up with the idea of using the same technology that your car uses to reduce the amount by which you feel bumps in the road.

The bureaucratic nightmare that is the U.S. government takes six months to put springs under the astronauts' seats... figuring out the complicated parts of a launch system (and testing it until it works reliably) will likely take considerably longer.

NASA Needs... Urine?

NASA needs a lot of things, but I never would have thought of this as one of them: apparently, NASA needs urine. It's okay, go back and read that again. It's not a typo.

Apparently Hamilton Sundstrand, who is working on the toilet system for the currently-in-development Orion launch system, needs urine in order to test their plumbing system and work on urine acidity issues. From July 21 to July 31, the company needs about 8 gallons of pee each day—even on weekends—in order to test the system.

But don't start bottling up your pee to send to them... the company is seeking contributions from employees at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. But if you do work there, I encourage you to go do your part by peeing for the future of technology.

Phoenix and Mars

NASA's Phoenix probe has landed on Mars, where it will begin a three-month mission to study the northern polar region for the presence of water. Remember, though, that the Spirit and Opportunity probes also landed on three-month missions five years ago. So when NASA puts together a three-month mission, that doesn't necessarily mean it will stop in three months... it will stop whenever they're done collecting useful data.

Phil Plaitt over at Bad Astronomy has posted some of the photos that Phoenix has already sent back of the surface.

NASA Schedules Hubble Repair Mission for Oct. 8 Launch

NASA has announced the new target launch date for the fifth (although it's called Servicing Mission 4) and final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis will launch for STS-125 on October 8 of this year, if all goes well. The mission was previously delayed due to NASA's need to build fuel tanks and for Endeavour to get ready. Endeavour is necessary as a back-up if a problem happens with Atlantis, as the shuttles trajectory to Hubble will make it impossible to make an emergency trip to the ISS.

If everything goes well and Endeavour is not needed for a rescue mission, then that shuttle will fly on November 10, 2008, to deliver a Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the ISS.

When Servicing Mission 4 is complete, not only will Hubble's useful life be extended, but the quality of science it can achieve will be enhanced. These enhancements include new batteries to replace the batteries that have been in use since 1990 and replacement of some of the gyroscopes that keep Hubble pointed at its targets for observation.

The crew will also be repairing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and some of Hubble's insulation, as well as installing a new cooling system, the Wide Field Camera 3, and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.

Atlantis Passes Fuel Sensor Checks; to Launch at 2:45 PM EST

Space Shuttle Atlantis passed all checks on the low-fuel sensors that failed in December, prompting NASA's two-month delay. The shuttle is due to launch in just a few minutes, at 2:45 PM EST, if the weather holds.

PlanetQuest Update

Laurence Doyle posted a new update early this morning on PlanetQuest, saying:

I applied for the NASA Kepler Science Team and included PlanetQuest as the educational component of the proposal. I proposed to find planets in the multiple star systems that Kepler observes and won the proposal.

So, there will be NASA Kepler spacecraft data in the PlanetQuest Collaboratory (we'll divvy it up evenly) to look for planets in. What is amazing about these data is that the precision will be 100 times anything achieved on Earth -- that is, the detection of Earth-sized planets around Sunlike stars will be possible.

So this seems like good news for both Dr. Doyle's PlanetQuest efforts and the Kepler Mission, both of which are projects that I've been interested in for a very long time.

Now, if PlanetQuest can just get their software out the door and into my grubby little hands....

Atlantis to Launch Tonight

Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch this evening at 7:38 PM EDT, and NASA expects only a 20% chance of inclement weather interfering with the launch.

This launch, delayed three months by damage from a freak hailstorm, will be going to the International Space Station to attach two more pieces of structural framework and a new set of solar panels. The astronauts will also relocate an existing set of solar panels and install a rotary joint allowing the panels to track the sun.

Global Warming "Is Three Times Faster Than Worst Predictions"

An article in the UK's Independent newspaper highlights our difficulties in predicting global warming:

...emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at thrice the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.

Not good news, and something we absolutely need to do something about, in spite of what NASA Administrator Mike Griffin seems to think.

A Kinder, Gentler NASA

Reuters reports that NASA is more than willing to work with commercial partners when it comes to going to, and establishing a base on, the moon.

"If we could be in a commercial relationship with somebody who has the capability that's fine because in many cases they can do it for less money than we can," said Neil Woodward, acting director of NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, at the International Space Development Conference in Dallas.

Woodward also suggested that NASA would be very interested in an orbital fuel depot, an idea pushed heavily by Jon Goff and others. "One thing that keeps getting batted around is a fuel dump in orbit, in low Earth orbit. If someone was to build one of those and said do you want NASA to be a customer we would say yes because if you do the math it turns out that it would be an advantage to us," Woodward said.

"We're trying to help some commercial entities demonstrate that they can do low Earth orbit resupply to say the space station and once they can do that we can contract with them and then we don't have to do it ourselves anymore."

It's good to see that NASA is not only willing to work with private enterprise in space, but actively encouraging development of space. For many years, that was not the case, and it's a good sign for the future.

Hey Buddy, Wanna Be a Satellite Software Developer?

I know it's been a while since I wrote a post in this series, but I just found an exciting new opportunity for people like you and me to participate in the advancement of science and technology.

Wired Magazine reports on a new effort by NASA to develop software for satellites in the public domain through open-source software development projects.

The program was launched quietly last year under NASA's CoLab entrepreneur outreach program, created by Robert Schingler, 28, and Jessy Cowan-Sharp, 25, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. Members of the CosmosCode group have been meeting in Second Life and will open the program to the public in the coming weeks, organizers said.

I'm pretty excited about this opportunity, personally. Not only am I a science-and-technology nerd (as should be obvious from reading this blog), but I'm also a software developer. CosmosCode is my chance to take part in the creation of software for satellites and actually contribute my knowledge and skills--as opposed to just my idle CPU cycles--to the advancement of the human race.

Shuttle Launch Delayed

The U.S. Space Shuttles are fragile beasts, with (so far) a catastrophic failure rate of about 1-in-60. For that reason, NASA takes even small amounts of damage to the shuttles very seriously.

When a severe storm pounded Florida a couple of days ago, Atlantis was already sitting on the launch pad, and consequently the foam protecting its external fuel tank was damaged by severe hail. Since degraded foam doomed Columbia a few years ago, NASA has taken damage to the foam protectant very seriously.

As a result, NASA has decided to roll the shuttle back into the Vehicle Assembly Building to repair the damage, which will result in a roughly six week delay in launching the shuttle (they cannot launch to the ISS while the crews are being changed out due to traffic congestion). So the new expected launch date for Atlantis will be in late April.

By the way, I'm not an expert on launch pad processes, but it seems to me that rolling the shuttle out to the pad a month before launch is just asking for this kind of trouble. This isn't the first time NASA has had to delay a launch because of something like this. I know they get to have drills and practice the launch a couple of times by having the launcher on the pad, but do they really need a month to do all of that, or could they be server by having it out 7-10 days before launch?

Hey Buddy, Wanna Be a NASA Researcher?

In 2001, NASA started a pilot program called Clickworkers to allow the general public to participate in their research. Through the program, you can analyze data returned from NASA's Mars missions, such as the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, to help NASA identify landmarks and surface details on Mars.

You can also analyze data from Mars Global Surveyor's Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) to help identify the landmarks that NASA should be pointing HiRISE at for further study.

If Mars isn't your cup of tea, they also have data returned from the Dawn mission that you can analyze to mark crater impacts on asteroids (starting with the NEAR asteroid). Doing so will help NASA determine some of the history of the asteroid and our solar system.

With the recent cuts to NASA's science budget, they're going to need all the help they can get, and this is a perfect opportunity to help keep NASA science going in these tough times.

Get started by visiting the Clickworkers website.

NASA Upgrades Mars Rover Software

NASA has given the Mars rovers--Spirit and Opportunity--a gift for their third birthday. The space agency is providing the rovers with new, updated software to allow for more autonomous functionality.

In addition to allowing the rovers to complete their tasks more quickly and efficiently, the update allows NASA to test the software for use in future Mars or Moon missions.

If you're not that familiar with the Mars rovers, you should learn more about them. The twin rovers are an example of how NASA sometimes hits a grand slam. Designed for 90-missions, the rovers are about to complete their third year on the red planet, during which time they've provided massive amounts of information, more than anyone ever expected.

NASA isn't perfect. In fact, they strike out pretty frequently, and Congress screws up for them even more frequently. But when they connect, they often hit it out of the park.

Read more about the software updates HERE.

No Joy for Discovery

Last night's launch of the Discovery space shuttle was scrubbed due to poor weather, as expected. Since NASA has no expectation for better results today, the next attempt will be Saturday at 8:47 PM EST.

Discovery Launch Unlikely Tonight

NASA's first night-time shuttle launch in four years appears to be in jeopardy due to weather concerns. There is only a 40% chance of decent weather at the launch site this evening. Tomorrow night, the forecast is even worse, with only a 30% chance of acceptable weather, and then the forecast goes back to 40% for Saturday night.

Additionally, the weather forecasts for the emergency landing sites in Spain and France are pretty poor. Even if the weather is pristine in Florida, NASA won't launch the shuttle unless there is clear weather at at least one of the emergency landing sites.

My guess would be Saturday for Discovery's launch, but that's just a guess.

The purpose of this launch is to ferry supplies to the International Space Station, add another truss segment, and re-wire some of the station's power grid.

Water on Mars

NASA just issued a press release with some major implications, revealing that images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor indicate the presence that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars within the last seven years.

"These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program.

Liquid water is important, because it is believed that any microbial life existing on Mars would need liquid water (not vapors or ice) in order to survive.

Today's announcement is the first to reveal newly deposited material apparently carried by fluids after earlier imaging of the same gullies. The two sites are inside craters in the Terra Sirenum and the Centauri Montes regions of southern Mars.

"These fresh deposits suggest that at some places and times on present-day Mars, liquid water is emerging from beneath the ground and briefly flowing down the slopes. This possibility raises questions about how the water would stay melted below ground, how widespread it might be, and whether there's a below-ground wet habitat conducive to life. Future missions may provide the answers," said Malin.

NASA's Lunar Plans

What better topic for my first post than NASA's announcement of their plans for exploration of and a permanent outpost on the moon? Yesterday, NASA announced that it plans to land humans on the moon by 2020 and establish a permanent settlement at the lunar south pole by 2024.

While very little in their announcement constitutes news, this is, nevertheless, an exciting day. NASA gave details of their moon landers, which can be either piloted or remotely controlled and can carry crews or cargo to and from the moon's surface. Also, parts of the landers will remain behind (much like on Apollo) when the crew leaves, thus accumulating structures that will form the permanent outpost.

Most exciting to me, I think, was the suggestion by NASA associate deputy administrator Doug Cooke that part of the reason they chose their outpost site was because of the presence of of resources nearby that can be mined. The gathering of resources on the moon will be necessary to eventually make any type of permanent settlement self-sustaining. Two birds could be killed with one stone... the settlement(s) could become financially self-sufficient, and resources shipped back from the moon could buttress scarcities here on Earth.

Also of interest was the statement by NASA exploration chief Scott Horowitz that supplying oxygen to the lunar outpost could be turned over to a commercial supplier.