Nasa News
NASA AWARDS CONTRACTS FOR CONSTELLATION PROGRAM STUDY
NASA has awarded a 90-day study contract to four space-related
companies to separately examine long-term ground processing and
infrastructure planning for the agency's Constellation Program.
The contractor teams are expected to provide a wealth of knowledge and
experience during the study phase to support ground systems and
operations planning through 2030, including missions supporting the
International Space Station, lunar exploration and Mars exploration.
Contract awardees are: ATK Launch Systems Group, Corrine, Utah; Boeing
Space Operations Co., Titusville, Fla.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems
Company, Littleton, Colo., and United Space Alliance, Houston. The
awards are limited to $150,000 per contract.
Study recommendations will be considered in NASA's Kennedy Space
Center's planning for the Ares I crew launch vehicle, Ares V cargo
launch vehicle operations and crew exploration vehicle processing.
The contracts, which should be completed in October, were awarded in
response to the Constellation ground operations Broad Agency
Announcement Request for Proposal issued in April.
"NASA's intent is to include industry in our planning phase to get a
broad perspective of ground operations, especially for the
long-term," said Pepper Phillips, deputy director of the
Constellation Project Office at Kennedy. "These four companies will
provide several possible solutions to the same challenges, which we
expect to benefit our planning. Selecting ground processing and
launch concepts are long-term commitments and we want to consider all
options."
For information about NASA's exploration efforts, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration
NASA AFRICA MISSION INVESTIGATES ORIGIN, DEVELOPMENT OF HURRICANES
Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, universities and international agencies will study
how winds and dust conditions from Africa influence the birth of
hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.
The field campaign, called NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary
Analyses 2006, runs from Aug. 15 to mid-September in the Cape Verde
Islands, 350 miles off the coast of Senegal in West Africa. This
campaign is a component of a much broader international project,
called the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses, aimed at
improving the knowledge and understanding of the West African
Monsoon.
Researchers will use satellite data, weather station information,
computer models and aircraft to provide scientists with better
insight into all the conditions that enhance the development of
tropical cyclones, the general name given to tropical depressions,
storms and hurricanes. This research will help hurricane forecasters
better understand the behavior of these deadly storms.
"Scientists recognize the hurricane development process when they see
it, but our skill in forecasting which weak system will intensify
into a major cyclone is not great," said Edward Zipser, mission chief
scientist, of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. "That is why
NASA and its partners place a high priority on obtaining high-quality
data for weak disturbances, as well as those already showing signs of
intensification."
For hurricanes to develop, specific environmental conditions must be
present: warm ocean waters, high humidity and favorable atmospheric
and upward spiraling wind patterns off the ocean surface. Atlantic
hurricanes usually start as weak tropical disturbances off the coast
of West Africa and intensify into rotating storms with weak winds,
called tropical depressions. If the depression continues to intensify
and reaches wind speeds of at least 39 mph, they are classified as
tropical storms. Hurricanes have winds greater than 73 mph.
To study these environmental conditions, researchers will use NASA's
DC-8 research aircraft as a platform for advanced atmospheric
research instruments. Remote and on-site sensing devices will allow
scientists to target specific areas in developing storms. Sensors
on-board the aircraft will measure cloud and particle sizes and
shapes, wind speed and direction, rainfall rates, atmospheric
temperature, pressure and relative humidity.
The campaign will use extensive data from NASA's fleet of earth
observing satellites, including the Tropical Rainfall Measurement
Mission, QuikSCAT, Aqua, and the recently-launched Cloudsat and
CALIPSO. These advanced satellites will provide unprecedented views
into the vertical structure of the tropical systems, while the field
observations will help validate data from the new satellites.
To better understand the physics of hurricanes, researchers are
seeking answers to questions about hurricane development, air
currents and the effects of dust on clouds.
During the field campaign, scientists hope to get a better
understanding of the role of the Saharan Air Layer and how its dry
air, strong embedded winds and dust influences cyclone development.
The layer is a mass of very dry, often dusty air that forms over the
Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer, and early fall and
usually moves out over the tropical Atlantic Ocean.
As part of looking at the Saharan Air Layer, scientists want to better
understand dust's effect on clouds. Some evidence indicates that dust
makes it more difficult for rain to form. Cloud models need to
account for any such effect, so measurements of cloud droplet
concentrations and size in clean ocean air and dusty air from the
Sahara need to be made.
Researchers also will look at what happens to air currents as they
move from land to ocean waters. Information on clouds and moisture,
heat, air movement, and precipitation in an unstable atmosphere will
be collected, analyzed and then simulated in computer models.
Understanding hurricane formation requires measurements from very
small to very large scales, from microscopic dust and raindrops to
cloud formations and air currents spanning hundreds of miles.
For more information about NASA's hurricane research, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane
NASA RELEASES INITIAL IMAGES FROM CALIPSO
The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation
spacecraft known as CALIPSO is returning never-before-seen images of
clouds and aerosols, tiny particles suspended in the air.
These new images are revealing the secrets of how clouds and aerosols
form, evolve and interact with the atmosphere. CALIPSO's first images
were taken in early June. They highlight the results of a major lava
dome collapse at the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the island of
Montserrat in the Caribbean. The dome collapse on May 20 involved an
explosion that sent ash clouds 55,000 feet into the sky.
To see the satellite's initial images, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/calipso
"The ability to observe and track a volcanic plume high in the
atmosphere from the eruption of Soufriere Hills illustrates the high
sensitivity of the satellite's instruments and the promise of
discoveries to come," said David Winker, CALIPSO principal
investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. "These
are exciting views of aerosols and clouds from around the globe."
On June 7 CALIPSO's lidar, a device similar to radar that emits pulsed
laser light instead of microwaves, obtained a vertical profile of the
aerosol remnants of the Montserrat volcanic activity over Indonesia.
Upper air movement carried a sulfur dioxide plume from the Caribbean
island more than 11,000 miles to Southeast Asia.
By globally observing aerosols' movement and altitude, CALIPSO
improves our ability to assess and forecast their impact around the
Earth. For example, volcanic plumes have an impact on air traffic
safety, since the plumes are hazardous to commercial aircraft when
they cross flight lanes. Aerosol activity at lower altitudes affects
air quality.
The three instruments aboard CALIPSO are aligned to view the same area
and work together to provide improved information on the size of ice
crystals and other properties of thin clouds. The primary instrument
is a polarization lidar that provides unique, high-resolution
vertical profiles of aerosols and clouds using laser pulses. It can
detect natural and human-produced aerosols and thin clouds that are
invisible to radar, and sometimes even to the human eye.
The spacecraft's wide-field camera is used to determine cloud
uniformity and provide a broader view of the location viewed by the
lidar. The imaging infrared radiometer operates continuously,
providing information on cirrus cloud particle size and infrared
emissions activity. It looks at the top surface of a broad sweep of
cloud area.
CALIPSO was launched April 28 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.,
with NASA's CloudSat satellite. Both satellites orbit 438 miles above
Earth as members of NASA's A-Train constellation of five Earth
observing system satellites. A-Train stands for "afternoon," because
the constellation crosses the equator every day starting at 1:30 p.m.
eastern time. The constellation provides new insights into the global
distribution and evolution of clouds, helping to improve weather
forecasting and climate prediction.
CALIPSO was developed cooperatively by NASA and France's Centre
National d'Etudes Spatiales. Langley is leading the CALIPSO mission
and providing overall project management, systems engineering, and
payload mission operations. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md., provides support for system engineering, project and
program management.
CNES provides a PROTEUS spacecraft developed by Alcatel Alenia Space,
the radiometer instrument, and spacecraft mission operations. Hampton
University, Hampton, Va., is providing scientific contributions and
managing the outreach program. Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo.,
developed the lidar and on-board visible camera.
NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS PREPARES TO ROLL TO LAUNCH PAD
NASA's space shuttle Atlantis is set to embark on a four-mile journey
to Launch Pad 39-B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. on Monday,
July 31. First motion is scheduled for 12:01 a.m. EDT. Atlantis'
launch window begins Aug. 28 for an 11-day mission to the
International Space Station.
The fully assembled space shuttle vehicle, consisting of the orbiter,
external tank and twin solid rocket boosters, will be mounted on a
mobile launcher platform and delivered to the pad via a crawler
transporter. The process is expected to take approximately six hours.
NASA EXPLORATION SYSTEMS PROGRESS REPORT
NASA engineers around the country recently completed tests associated
with rocket engines, heat protection systems and spacesuits destined
for use in the Constellation Program of moon and Mars missions.
Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,
completed an early step in developing the upper-stage rocket engine
that will be used in both the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares
V cargo launch vehicle.
The Marshall team completed the first series of tests on a scaled-down
version of main injector hardware, which will inject and mix liquid
hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants in the engine combustion
chamber, where they are ignited and burned to produce thrust.
The initial tests were performed on a hardware model, approximately
1/13th the thrust level of a full-scale J-2 engine injector, that
contained 40 individual elements for propellant flow. The injector
was fired horizontally with varying fuel temperatures and different
propellant mixture ratios for 10 to 20 seconds at a thrust of
approximately 20,000 pounds. Approximately 50 tests are planned for
this series.
These tests will help engineers investigate design options for, and
maximize performance of, the J-2X upper stage engine, an updated
version of the powerful J-2 engine used to launch the Saturn V rocket
upper stages during Apollo.
At Johnson Space Center, Houston, recent tests focused on materials
that could be used to protect the Crew Exploration Vehicle when it
makes its fiery descent through the atmosphere on the way home to
Earth.
Engineers used an arcjet facility capable of simulating re-entry
temperatures to test eight tile samples. Four tests evaluated the
performance of LI-2200, a dense silica fiber tile that has been used
on the belly of the space shuttle to protect it during atmospheric
re-entry. Also tested was the BRI-18, which flew for the first time
this month on parts of the Space Shuttle Discovery. The BRI-18 is a
stronger tile that can be protected with a more durable coating for
better protection against damage from debris.
Also in Houston, astronauts and other personnel practiced walking back
to base from a stranded moon rover to test basic spacesuit
requirements for use in designing the first new spacesuit for use on
the moon since Apollo. These suits will need to be more comfortable
and durable than earlier spacesuits since the next lunar explorers
will be staying on the surface for longer periods, eventually up to
six months at a time, and conducting more scientific research and
construction tasks than ever attempted in Apollo.
The tests used an advanced spacesuit in simulated lunar and Mars
conditions, one-sixth and one-third Earth's gravity respectively.
Using a treadmill and wearing a spacesuit designed to test various
components, seven people completed the tests at speeds ranging from
2.75 to 5.5 mph. In all, the subjects covered 61.25 miles, more than
the total 59.6 miles covered by all 12 Apollo moon walkers.
At Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., test conductors
fired an Integrated Powerhead Demonstration engine at the 100-percent
power level for the first time. The engine is a ground demonstrator
engine combining the very latest in rocket engine propulsion
technologies.
The engine uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It is being
developed and tested as a re-usable engine system, capable of up to
200 flights. The project is a combined effort by Pratt and Whitney
Rocketdyne, Inc. Canoga Park, Calif., and Aerojet, Sacramento,
Calif., under the program direction of the Air Force Research
Laboratory, Edwards, Calif., and technical direction of Marshall.
Constellation's Ares I and Ares V launch vehicle project includes
teams at NASA and organizations around the nation. The project is led
by the agency's Exploration Launch Projects office at Marshall. The
Constellation Program Office and Crew Exploration Vehicle Project
Office are hosted by the Johnson Space Center.
For information about NASA's exploration efforts, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration
