Monday, May 5, 2008

24/7 Live Nasa TV in Windows Media format

Live 24/7 NASA TV in Windows Media format for Windows Media Player

Consolidated Launch Manifest Space Shuttle Flights and ISS Assembly Sequence

Consolidated Launch Manifest
Space Shuttle Flights and ISS Assembly Sequence

Find out how you can visit Kennedy Space Center to watch a future space shuttle launch and/or landing.
Launch
Target
Assembly
Flight
Launch
Vehicle
Element(s)
May 31, 2008
1J Discovery STS-124
  • Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Pressurized Module (JEM-PM)
  • Japanese Remote Manipulator System (JEM RMS)
Aug. 28, 2008 N/A Atlantis STS-125
(HST-SM4)
  • N/A
Oct. 16, 2008
ULF2 Endeavour
STS-126
  • Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)
Dec. 4, 2008
15A Discovery
STS-119
  • Fourth starboard truss segment (ITS S6)
  • Fourth set of solar arrays and batteries


Under review
3R Russian Proton
  • Multipurpose Laboratory Module with European Robotic Arm (ERA)
Under review
2J/A Endeavour
STS-127
  • Kibo Japanese Experiment Module Exposed Facility (JEM EF)
  • Kibo Japanese Experiment Logistics Module - Exposed Section (ELM-ES)
  • Spacelab Pallet - Deployable 2 (SLP-D2)
Under review
HTV-1 H-IIB
  • Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle
Under review
17A Discovery
STS-128
  • Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)
  • Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier (LMC)
  • Three crew quarters, galley, second treadmill (TVIS2), Crew Health Care System 2 (CHeCS 2)
Establish Six Person Crew Capability
Under review
ULF3 Endeavour
STS-129
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 (ELC1)
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 2 (ELC2)
Under review
19A Discovery
STS-130
  • Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM)
  • Lightweight Multi-Purpose Experiment Support Structure Carrier (LMC)
Under review
*ULF4 Endeavour
STS-131
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 3 (ELC3)
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 4 (ELC4)
Under review
20A Discovery
STS-132
  • Node 3 with Cupola
Under review
*ULF5 Endeavour
STS-133
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 5 (ELC5)
  • EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 (ELC1)
ISS Assembly Complete
Under review 9R Russian Proton
  • Research Module
* Two shuttle-equivalent flights for contingency
Notes: Additional Progress and Soyuz flights for crew transport, logistics and resupply are not listed.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Astronauts Open ISS Station Room




Astronauts aboard the international space station readied for a second spacewalk Sunday, preparing to work on the outside of the new Harmony addition and inspect a couple areas of concern on the orbiting outpost. Spacewalkers Scott Parazynski and Daniel Tani also planned to detach a nearly 35,000-pound space station girder so it can be relocated later in the mission. Once the pair detaches the bolts and cables that hold the girder in place, astronauts inside the station plan to use a robotic arm to move the truss to a location where it can be temporarily parked. Installation is set for Tuesday during the mission's third spacewalk.

Once the girder has been detached, Parazynski is set to install spacewalking handrails and other equipment to the outside of Harmony, a school bus-sized chamber that was delivered by the shuttle Discovery and installed during the mission's first spacewalk. The crew entered the room for the first time on Saturday. Meanwhile, Tani is scheduled to inspect a rotary joint for the station's solar wings that is acting up and check for possible sharp edges on a rail for the robot arm.

NASA had to cut a spacewalk short during Endeavour's August mission after one of the astronauts noticed a quarter-inch-long rip in the thumb of his glove. Another glove was damaged during an earlier flight, and Mission Control said sharp edges on the rail may be to blame in both cases. Tani later plans to help Parazynski install a fixture on Harmony that will allow the station's robotic arm to move the compartment from its current temporary location to its permanent home. The space station's crew will relocate Harmony after Discovery leaves in another week.

The European Space Agency's science laboratory, named Columbus, will hook onto Harmony as early as December. The Japanese Space Agency's lab called Kibo or in English, Hope will latch onto Harmony early next year.

Harmony also will function as a nerve center, providing air, electricity and water for the space station. It was launched with racks of computer and electronic equipment pre-installed. All this gear had to be locked down for the jarring rocket ride to orbit, leaving the astronauts to undo more than 700 bolts to free up the equipment.

The full article is here.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

NASA spaceship scouts out prime Mars landing options

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter this week sent back high-resolution images of about 30 proposed landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, a mission launching in 2009 to deploy a long-distance rover carrying sophisticated science instruments on Mars.



The orbiter's high-resolution camera has taken more than 3,500 huge, sharp images released in black-and-white since it began science operations in November 2006. The images reveal features as small as a desk. The orbiter has sent back some 26 terabytes of data, equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMs. The camera carries 10 red filter detectors, two blue-green filter detectors and 10 infrared detectors.

The full article is here.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Self-sufficient space habitat designed


SYDNEY: Australian-led scientists have designed a new space habitat that might one day allow astronauts on the Moon or Mars to be 90 to 95 per cent self-sufficient.

The development of such as system could save billions of dollars in shuttle trips to re-supply lunar or space colonies and brings closer the vision of a human habitat on Mars.

The technology could also have applications on Earth to develop more sustainable farming techniques and improve recycling processes.

Luna Gaia

Some systems to recycle water and air have already been developed and rudimentary versions are presently used in the International Space Station (ISS). However, the proposed new lunar habitat "combines our existing knowledge" of physical, chemical and biological processes to provide an "overall picture of how a minibiosphere would work," said James Chartres aerospace engineer at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He gave a talk detailing the design at the Australian Space Science Conference held in Sydney last month.

The project is in some ways similar to the failed Biosphere 2 experiment, built in Arizona, U.S., in the late 1980s. Over an area of 12,000 m2, Biosphere housed a closed ecological system, incorporating a mini 'ocean' with coral reefs, as well as a grassland, desert, mangrove, rainforest and agricultural areas. Eight people survived in the habitat for two years, but a lack of food and low levels of oxygen hampered the experiment. Chartres detailed plans for a smaller, space-bound concept, dubbed Luna Gaia.

Devised by an international team of 30 space scientists, Luna Gaia would be a 'closed-loop' environment, meaning that almost all material within the system is recycled with very little need for input from outside sources. The current design caters for a team of 12 astronauts under isolation for up to three years.

Currently, recycling that occurs on the ISS is driven by chemical reactions. A big challenge to developing a totally integrated system is developing a biological recycling system said Chartres. He argues that for efficient recycling, microorganisms are required.

Crops in space

His team devised a new system that takes into account all details of living in an enclosed system in space, even down to the materials that supplies are packed in.

The Luna Gaia concept integrates technologies such as the Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System (CEBAS), an enclosed aquarium designed by the German Aerospace Centre and the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELIiSSA) developed by the European Space Agency. MELIiSSA uses microbes to purify water, recycle carbon dioxide and derive edible material from waste products.

Algae – which generates oxygen from carbon dioxide via photosynthesis, and doesn't require pollinating – is the key to the proposed design.

The food required for astronauts would come from a mixture of tending small crops and from pre-packed supplies. Such crops would include peanuts, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and wheat. In addition, certain types of algae, such as Spirulina or Chlorella would provide other vitamins, minerals and trace elements.

The diet would be largely vegetarian, said Chartres, but protein could potentially come from small-scale farming of fast-growing fish such tilapia.

A lunar base is unlikely to ever be 100 per cent self-sufficient, said Chartres, because no atmosphere is completely safe from leaks and it could not provide humans with all the nutrients that they need to survive.

Moreover, astronauts need the occasional break to the routine of standard food, so the odd "luxury item such as fruit salad, spices or chocolate," would ward off any doldrums, he said.

Significant hurdles

Pathogens introduced to the system by plants, as well as difficulties of pollination for crops still pose significant hurdles to the design. In addition, as much as 20 m2 of plants would be required to feed a single astronaut.

The proposed system, is unlikely to be up and running any time soon. Chartres estimates it will be another 20 to 30 years before the funding for the set-up and the practicality of providing the space for plant growth in a spacecraft is realised.

Mark Kliss a bioengineer with the NASA Space Biosciences Division in Moffett Field, California, said he found the project interesting.

"Certain subsystems could be, and in some cases are currently being used on Earth to provide improved water reclamation techniques, better contamination control methods, superior solid waste management technologies, advanced crop productivity techniques, as well as application to carbon credit and green building technologies," said Kliss of the wider applications.

He added that any knowledge gained from attempts to develop and operate "relatively closed, regenerable life support systems" is useful because it helps us understand how to utilise limited resources as efficiently as possible.

"This is an issue that is not only important for future long duration human space missions, but for humans on Earth as well," he said

Full PDF download

Monday, September 24, 2007

To the Moon and Beyond



The moon, a luminous disk in the inky sky, appears suddenly above the broad crescent of Earth’s horizon. The four astronauts in the Orion crew exploration vehicle have witnessed several such spectacular moonrises since their spacecraft reached orbit some 300 kilometers above the vast expanse of our home planet. But now, with a well-timed rocket boost, the pilot is ready to accelerate their vessel toward the distant target ahead. “Translunar injection burn in 10 seconds ... ” comes the call over the headset. “Five, four, three, two, one, mark ... ignition....” White-hot flames erupt from a rocket nozzle far astern, and the entire ship—a stack of functional modules—vibrates as the crew starts the voyage to our nearest celestial neighbor, a still mysterious place that humans have not visited in nearly half a century. The year is 2020, and Americans are returning to the moon. This time, however, the goal is not just to come and go but to establish an outpost for a new generation of space ­explorers.

The Orion vehicle is a key component of the Constellation program, NASA’s ambitious, multi­billion-dollar effort to build a space transportation system that can not only bring humans to the moon and back but also resupply the Internation­al Space Station (ISS) and eventually place people on the planet Mars. Since the program was established in mid-2006, engineers and researchers at NASA, as well as at Lockheed Martin, Orion’s prime contractor, have been working to develop the rocket launchers, crew and service modules, upper stages and landing systems necessary for the U.S. to mount a robust and affordable human spaceflight effort after its current launch workhorse, the space shuttle, retires in 2010.

To minimize development risks and costs, NASA planners based the Constellation program on many of the tried-and-true technical principles and know-how established during the Apollo program, an engineering feat that put men safely on the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the same time, NASA engineers are redesigning many systems and components using updated technology.

Orion starts with much the same general functionality as the Apollo spacecraft, and its crew capsule has a similar shape, but the resemblance is only skin-deep. Orion will, for example, accommodate larger crews than Apollo did. Four people will ride in a pressurized cabin with a volume of approximately 20 cubic meters for lunar missions (six will ride for visits to the space station starting around 2015), compared with Apollo’s three astronauts (plus equipment) in a cramped volume of about 10 cubic meters.

The latest structural designs, electronics, and computing and communications technologies will help project designers expand the new spacecraft’s operational flexibility beyond that of Apollo. Orion, for instance, will be able to dock with other craft automatically and to loiter in lunar orbit for six months with no one onboard. Engineers are widening safety margins as well. In the event of an emergency during launch, for example, a powerful escape rocket will quickly remove the crew from danger, a benefit space shuttle astronauts do not enjoy. But to give you a better feel for what the program involves, let us start on the ground, before the Orion crew leaves Earth. From there, we will trace the progress of a prototypical lunar mission and the technologies planned to accomplish each stage.

The full article can be read here.