First Ever Whole Sun View-Coming Soon....from STEREO

“For the first time in the history of humankind we will be able to see the front and the far side of the sun … Simultaneously,” Madhulika Guhathakurta told Universe Today. Guhathakurta is the STEREO Program Scientist at NASA HQ.

Courtesy of NASA’s solar duo of STEREO spacecraft. And the noteworthy event is timed to coincide just perfectly with ‘Super Bowl SUNday’ – Exactly one week from today on Feb. 6 during Super Bowl XLV !

“This will be the first time we can see the entire Sun at one time,” said Dean Pesnell, NASA Solar Astrophysicist in an interview for Universe Today. Pesnell is the Project Scientist for NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, MD.

This remarkable milestone will be achieved when NASA’s two STEREO spacecraft reach position 180 degrees separate on opposite sides of the Sun on Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011 and can observe the entire 360 degrees of the Sun.

“We are going to celebrate by having a football game that night!” Pesnell added in jest.

The nearly identical STEREO spacecraft – dubbed STEREO Ahead and STEREO Behind – are orbiting the sun in opposite directions and providing a more complete picture of the Suns environment with each passing day. One probe follows Earth around the sun; the other one leads us.

STEREO is the acronym for Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory. Their mission is to provide the very first, 3-D “stereo” images of the sun to study the nature of coronal mass ejections.The nearly identical STEREO spacecraft – dubbed STEREO Ahead and STEREO Behind – are orbiting the sun in opposite directions and providing a more complete picture of the Suns environment with each passing day. One probe follows Earth around the sun; the other one leads us.

STEREO is the acronym for Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory. Their mission is to provide the very first, 3-D “stereo” images of the sun to study the nature of coronal mass ejections.

Today, (Jan 30) the twin STEREO spacecraft are 179.1 degrees apart and about 90 degrees from Earth, and thus virtually at the midpoint to the back of the sun. See the orbital location graphics above and below.

Both probes were flung into space some four years ago and have been hurtling towards this history making date and location ever since. The wedge of unseen solar territory has been declining.

As the STEREO probes continue flying around to the back side of the sun, the wedge of unseen solar territory on the near side will be increasing and the SDO solar probe will play a vital gap filling role.

“SDO provides the front side view of the sun with exquisite details and very fast time resolution,” Gutharka told me. For the next 8 years, when combined with SDO data, the full solar sphere will still be visible.

2012 Beginning of the End to the world!

Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.

Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we're frequently asked regarding 2012.

Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.

Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

Shuttle Discovery Prepares Final Launch in February 2011

Space shuttle Discovery’s team are preparing for an upcoming launch. The space shuttle’s planned move to the launch pad 39A from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) will take place on Monday, Jan. 31. The Discovery’s International Space Station final flight, the STS-133 mission, is scheduled for February 24, 2011, before it enters retirement.

NASA engineers at the VAB completed replacement of shuttle’s mechanical parts and fuel tank modifications. Operations are underway to transport it to Launch Pad 39A as scheduled.

The distance from the VAB to the launch pad is approximately 3.4 miles. A giant crawler will transport the shuttle. Scientists anticipate the three-mile journey to continue the span of about six hours.

The final mission for the Discovery will last roughly 11 days, delivering and installing the Permanent Multipurpose Module and other spare critical modules for the space station. At some stage in the mission, the Discovery will also deliver components to the Express Logistics Carrier 4, which is the exterior platform where the larger equipment is stored. One of the final stages of the mission involves the Discovery delivering the Robonaut 2, commonly referred to as R2. The R2 will become the first multiple intelligence type robot to permanently reside at the International Space Station.

In November, the first attempt to launch the Discovery was cancelled due to a gaseous hydrogen leak. The shuttle was returned to the VAB for x rays and repairs, readying it for the scheduled launch in February.

Upon completion of this mission, the Space Shuttle Discovery will have made 39 flights during its active time in the space program.

NASA has authorized live coverage and plans to air highlights of the first movement on the agency’s television video file.

NASA Ends 30 Years of Shuttle Flights

 The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to launch from Cape Kennedy in February to begin its final journey into space. The mission, the 133rd of the Shuttle fleet, is one of only three remaining flights in a program that has spanned three decades and sent over 300 humans into space. Since 1981, five Space Shuttle Orbiters have carried communications, defense and scientific satellites into space, acted as orbiting laboratories for scientific, medical and technological research and have been posts for observing Earth weather patterns as well as climate and ecological changes. Space shuttles have brought the Hubble telescope to orbit, built the International Space Station (ISS) and helped humans learn to live and work in the harshest and most unforgiving environment they have ever faced.

A presidential mandate in 2004, following the disintegration of Columbia, instructed NASA to retire the Shuttle by 2010 and begin work on a program to send humans back to the moon. NASA developed Project Constellation and successfully test-launched the new Ares rocket in October 2009. Unfortunately, President George W. Bush failed to provide the funding needed to reach the goals he had set. When President Obama and the Augustine Commission reviewed the Bush plans, they considered them unfeasible under the current NASA budget. Rather than providing the funding necessary, however, Obama canceled Constellation and sent NASA in a "New Direction" wherein private companies would begin developing the next generation earth-orbit launch vehicle, allowing NASA to focus on designing more advanced spacecraft to reach deep space.

The Obama plan faced much criticism because of its vague and distant goals and reliance on foreign nations to send humans to the ISS. Many NASA employees, past and present, expressed concerns that the private sector is not advanced enough to conduct spaceflight operations yet. Some astronauts who have come out in support of the plan — most notably Buzz Aldrin, who, along with Neil Armstrong, became one of the first men to land on the moon in 1969 — have emphasized its importance to the private sector as a driving force for American business and ingenuity.

Recent attempts in Congress to alter the "New Direction" plan, combined with the results of the 2010-midterm elections, leave the future of American spaceflight very much in question. Recent successes in the private spaceflight sector show some hope for this plan, but without any specific goals and far too much reliance on a new industry, NASA is on thin ice. For the first time in American history, we will be ending a manned space program without having one to take its place. At this crucial turning point, it is important to look back at the Shuttle and the programs before it, to honor their contributions to this nation and the world and to emphasize the importance of scientific discovery, research and exploration to humanity. All this is best expressed through the words of the select few who have traveled beyond our planet.

Should astronauts get bad news in space?

Astronaut Daniel Tani was orbiting 200 miles above Earth when he learned his mother had died in a car accident. So he sent a video message for the funeral.

Astronaut Vladimir Dezhurov was on board the Russian space station Mir when he learned of his mother's death. He was despondent for days.

And on Jan. 8, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly was commanding the International Space Station when he learned someone in Arizona had shot his sister-in-law, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

'We have a unique vantage point here aboard the International Space Station,' Kelly said, in commenting about the tragedy: 'As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not.'

Losses, both gentle and tragic, are a little-discussed challenge of space travel that will become increasingly important if NASA moves ahead with plans to send astronauts on longer-than-ever journeys, such as a trip to an asteroid or Mars.

On long space missions, astronauts may hear the news that makes people feel most alone — such as losing a parent — at the very time they are most alone.

NASA has already found itself in a predicament: Do you tell astronauts of the disasters down below or keep quiet?

Tell them, says George Abbey, former director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, which is home to Mission Control.

'They need to be straightforward and honest with crews on orbit. They need to recognize that these individuals are professional and situations do develop,' said Abbey, now a space policy expert at the Baker Institute at Houston's Rice University.

In the case of the Arizona shootings, it's clear Kelly was informed. In fact, he sent a Twitter message about it on the day it happened.

Even if NASA wanted to, it couldn't easily put a lid on bad news because the information explosion has extended into space. These days, astronauts communicate with their families by e-mail and phone calls.

Still, former NASA astronaut Norman Thagard has seen what bad news can do to a person in space.

Thagard was on board the Russian space station Mir in 1995 when the Russian commander, Dezhurov, learned his mother had died unexpectedly. 'It really did get to him. He basically just went to himself for about two to three days. … Our flight engineer urged him to eat and urged him to start being active again,' said Thagard, a retired associate dean of Florida A&M University-Florida State University College of Engineering.

Thagard said it's probably best for astronauts to let NASA managers know in advance whether they would like to get bad news immediately while in space or later on the ground.

The business of human space flight is poised for three big trends. One is the coming era of commercial space flights. Another is the new countries getting into space travel. The third is that the U.S. is planning to send humans farther into space than ever before.

The Bush administration planned to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars. The Obama administration has replaced that plan with a more amorphous one but still promises to send humans on unprecedented journeys. One is a potential trip to an asteroid, a journey that could last six months. A trip to Mars and back could take three years.

Dealing with bad news isn't something you can train for completely, said Pat Duggins, a radio journalist and author of 'Trailblazing Mars: NASA's Next Giant Leap.'

Duggins says a radio transmission to Mars takes 10 minutes. So imagine: You are one of three humans in a spaceship on the red planet.

Nasa adds new shuttle flight

Nasa does not yet know where it will get the money, but the space agency has added another shuttle launch to its schedule – the final one for the fleet.

The agency set a target launch date of June 28 for shuttle Atlantis and started preparations for the 135th and last shuttle flight.

The four-member crew will take up supplies to the International Space Station, make one spacewalk, and return a faulty pump that has bedevilled engineers.

Now three missions remain before Nasa retires its shuttle fleet this year. Shuttle Discovery’s last mission is planned for February 24, Endeavour’s in April.

The decision allows different parts of the shuttle programme to start work on Atlantis’ 12-day flight, including astronaut training and mission planning, Nasa spokesman Michael Curie said.

Originally Atlantis was planned as an emergency-only rescue mission if needed for the Endeavour crew.

Last year, the Obama administration and the US Congress clashed over the future of the human space programme and came up with a compromise that authorised one extra shuttle flight – the Atlantis mission. But congress never gave Nasa the few hundred million dollars needed for the extra flight, leaving the agency in a quandary about whether the flight was real or not.

The initial money is coming from the space shuttle programme’s regular budget, but that is not the big amounts needed for a shuttle flight, Mr Curie says.

“We’re optimistic that the funding will be there,” he said, but he could not give details about where the money would come from.

Nasa was pressed to start preparations or the Atlantis mission would not have been able to launch in late June, Mr Curie said.

The final flight will be commanded by Christopher Ferguson and includes Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.

The extra flight means that Mark Kelly – the husband of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, shot in an attempted assassination – will not command the final shuttle flight even if he stays on the Endeavour mission.

With his wife’s expected long rehabilitation, Mr Kelly asked for a back-up commander to be named in case he could not fly as scheduled in April.

Japanese rocket Stork 2 heads to space station with six tons of supplies

From its launch pad on a remote island, a Japanese rocket hurtled into the sky today in a plume of white smoke.

The unmanned Kounotori 2 (Stork 2 in Japanese) is carrying six tons of supplies for the astronauts on the orbiting International Space Station.

Applause broke out at the control centre on the southern Tanegashima Island as officials announced that the launch phase was a success.

The Kounotori - carrying food, water, clothing and experimental equipment including cargo for Nasa - is expected to rendezvous with the space station next Thursday.

It will be grappled by the station's robotic arm and docked to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module.

After dropping off the cargo and being loaded up with waste material, the rocket will be detached and burn itself up upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

The mission is designed to help fill a hole left by the shutdown of Nasa's space shuttle programme.

JAXA, Japan's space agency, hopes the project will help it build expertise for similar low-cost ferrying missions and push forward Japan's own manned flights.

Missions for the International Space Station have become more important now that the U.S. has scaled back its ability to launch supplies.

Since 2009, the station has been manned by six astronauts in an international project involving 15 nations. But keeping them fed and supplied has become a big challenge.

Space Shuttle Program Baselines STS-135

On Thursday, the Space Shuttle Program baselined the STS-135 mission for a target launch date of June 28. It is NASA's intent to fly the mission with orbiter Atlantis carrying the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station.

The mission also will fly a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing spacecraft and return a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems.

In late December, the agency's Space Operations Mission Directorate requested the shuttle and International Space Station programs take the necessary steps to maintain the capability to fly Atlantis on the STS-135 mission.

 

The Authorization Act of 2010 directs NASA to conduct the mission, and baselining the flight enables the program to begin preparations for the mission with a target launch date of June 28. The mission would be the 135th and final space shuttle flight.

Prepping for the next shuttle mission, STS-133, continues in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida where technicians are making good progress in their work to modify the stringers on Discovery's external fuel tank.

Discovery and its six astronauts are targeted to launch on the STS-133 mission to the International Space Station on Feb. 24.

Having been joined by their newest crew member, Steve Bowen, Discovery's astronauts will review robotics procedures and review spacewalk timelines at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Bowen, who flew into space on STS-132 in May 2010, will be the first astronaut to fly on consecutive missions.

NASA Challenges Students To Train Like an Astronaut

NASA's Human Research Program is sponsoring the U.S. component of the international challenge that began Tuesday. Teams of students between eight and 12 years old will learn principles of healthy eating, exercise and compete for points by finishing training modules. Students also will practice scientific reasoning and teamwork while participating in hands-on training that targets strength, endurance, coordination, balance and spatial awareness. The exercises will involve the same types of skills astronauts learn during training for spaceflights.

"A part of the human space exploration mission is to inspire our youth to stay in school and master professions in the sciences and engineering fields to carry on this important work well into the 21st century," said Charles Lloyd, NASA's Human Research Program Education and Outreach Project manager. "We believe this starts with our youth in elementary school. We hope this international fitness challenge will assist them with that lifelong endeavor."

Mission X challenges students to be more physically active; increases awareness of the importance of lifelong health and conditioning; teaches students how fitness plays a vital role in human performance for exploration; and inspires and motivates students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The U.S., Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Colombia, Spain and United Kingdom are hosting teams for the challenge. Team USA is hosted by the College Station Independent School District (ISD) in College Station, Texas. It consists of more than 800 fourth-grade students. After six weeks of training, the U.S. challenge will culminate in a March 24th event, called the Fit Explorer Hometown Hullabaloo, to celebrate the students' success.

"Mission X is an exciting way to actively involve students in learning the importance of nutrition and physical fitness," said Becky Burghardt, director for curriculum, College Station ISD. "Children are fascinated by the training experiences of astronauts and are motivated to mirror what real-life astronauts do to prepare for space missions. Teachers and administrators are hopeful the rich science and physical education experiences designed by NASA will help students become aware of the importance of living a healthy lifestyle."

A Private Space Shuttle Replacement

Once the space-shuttle program ends this year, the only way to get people into orbit and to the International Space Station will be to buy seats on Russia's three-person Soyuz capsules. So NASA, through its Commercial Crew Development program, has given $50 million in grants to companies developing new spacecraft capable of carrying people and supplies into orbit and to the space station.

The recipient of the biggest chunk of this money was the Sierra Nevada Corporation, which received $20 million to develop the Dream Chaser. This spacecraft, the size of a business jet, will take cargo and up to eight people into low Earth orbit, where the space station is located, and then return and land on commercial airport runways.

The company reached all its development milestones for the Dream Chaser last year and is now finishing a battery of tests on the craft's carbon-composite frame. The shell of the spacecraft must be able to endure heavy loads and intense vibrations. So the Dream Chaser frame has been mounted on an earthquake simulator in a lab at the University of Colorado in Boulder. So far, the design has performed as expected, says Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems division. At facilities in San Diego, the company has been testing the craft's hybrid rocket motors. In the coming months, the company will put the two together to complete a full prototype, carry it into the air, and drop it to see how it flies.

Other orbital spacecraft under development by companies including SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, and Boeing are capsules that will use parachutes to descend on land or in the sea. The Dream Chaser has a lifting body design; it looks something like an airplane without the large wings on the side. Its shape, in combination with extensible wheels and motors, will enable it to make a controlled landing on a runway. Sirangelo says that the craft will therefore be able to land on the ground in more places than other vehicles can, and that the gravitational forces to which it will expose passengers—and sensitive cargo and scientific instruments—will be less intense.

If the company continues to achieve its testing and development milestones, the Dream Chaser will be launched into orbit in 2014 on the nose of a powerful launch booster, the Atlas V, made by United Launch Alliance. After it reaches orbit, the craft will be dropped, and its hybrid motors will be used to adjust its orbit or dock it to a space station. These motors will also be used to guide it to its gentle landings.

Sierra Nevada, which also makes satellites, sensors, and other components, did not design the Dream Chaser from the ground up. In the 1970s, the Soviets tested a vehicle like it, known as the Bor-4. The crew of an Australian ship photographed it, and NASA used the image to reverse-engineer a similar craft. The resulting design, NASA's HL-20, underwent significant development and testing and was intended to be a lifeboat for astronauts aboard the space station. But the HL-20 program lapsed.

NASA's Week of Surprises for Shuttle Crew

The events of the last two Saturdays have stunned NASA in a way the space agency could never anticipated. Mark Kelly, Endeavour's commander for the space shuttle mission in April, found himself on the way to Arizona where his wife, Rep, Gabrielle Giffords, was critically injured in a shooting. Kelly, at his wife's bedside while she fights for recovery, asked NASA to name a backup commander, Rick Sturckow, for Kelly's mission.

This past weekend, astronaut Tim Kopra was injured during a bicycle ride. The extent of his injuries has not been released, but they are serious enough to have mission managers scrambling to consider who could take his place on the STS 133 mission, Discovery's oft-delayed final flight, whispacewalkerch is tentatively scheduled to launch next month.

NASA's choices: Wait for Kopra to heal from his injuries, or replace him on the mission. Kopra has been training for his two spacewalks for well over a year -- his mission was originally scheduled to fly in September 2010 and it was once the last space shuttle flight before the fleet was retired.

Astronauts give up anything risky when they start training for a flight -- no car racing, no sky diving, no scuba diving, no mountain climbing. Drew Feustel, who flew on the last mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, had to indulge his love for fast cars on the sidelines, watching his sons' race. Scott Parazynksi climbed Mount Everest only after he retired from the astronaut corps.

The training for a space mission is intense, so intense the astronauts become a second family.

Their commander for this next mission, Steve Lindsey, told ABC News working as a team is critical to the success of the mission. "You have to know that you can count on each other when things don't go as planned, and in contingency situations knowing that you have a team you can count on is important."

Al Drew is the other spacewalker on the mission. He admires Kopra not only for his spacewalking skill, but for his impish sense of humor. They are both members of the same rookie class of 2001, known as the bug class in honor of Y2K.

NASA observes moment of silence for Tucson shooting victims

Commander Scott Kelly, Gabrielle Giffords' brother-in-law, led a moment of silence through NASA at the International Space Station.

"The crew of ISS Expedition 26 and the flight control centers around the world would like to observe a moment of silence in honor of all the victims, which include my sister-in-law Gabrielle Giffords, a caring and dedicated public servant," said Commander Kelly.

Kelly is in charge of a six-person team at the ISS.

Kelly's twin brother, Mark, is Giffords' husband, and was scheduled to lead the final space shuttle mission in April. His participation in the mission is in doubt because of the tragedy.

NASA: ISS Crew in space observe national moment of silence

"At Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and aboard the International Space Station, flight controllers and the Expedition 26 crew paused to observe a National Moment of Silence Jan. 10, 2011. The event was held for the victims of the shootings in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 8 that left six people dead and more than a dozen wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). Station Commander Scott Kelly, Giffords' brother-in-law, led the station crew in its observance from 220 miles above the Earth."

Shooting rampage could affect timing of shuttle mission

 NASA's final space shuttle mission could be affected by the shooting rampage Saturday in Arizona that left six dead and 13 wounded.

Mark Kelly, an astronaut slated to command the final mission of shuttle Endeavor on April 1, is the husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remained in critical condition Sunday after sustaining a gunshot wound to the head.

Doctors said they were cautiously optimistic about Giffords' recovery after she was responsive to simple commands. A bullet passed directly through Giffords' brain, from back to front, doctors said at a news conference.

Kelly has been participating in a rigorous training schedule leading up to his role as commander of the shuttle mission. He is currently in Arizona with his family, and it was not clear if he would return to training.

There are typically no backup crews assigned for the shuttle missions, said NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters.

NASA officials have made no alternate plans for the April 1 mission because Kelly's participation has not yet come into question, Cloutier-Lemasters said.

"It's just too early to speculate what might come with that," she said. "Everybody's just focused on taking care of them and supporting them."

Kelly's longtime friend, Todd Fertitta of Landry's Restaurants in Galveston, said today Kelly was shaken by the shooting.

"Mark's a very, very strong person but at times like this it's testing for anybody," Fertitta said. "I mean he's just very upset."

Fertitta said Kelly would use his charisma and personal strength to help support his family. Although it was unclear how Giffords would recover, Fertitta said she would not want Kelly to jeopardize his place on Endeavor.

"Gabby would want him on that mission," Fertitta said. "She loved what he did, and she loved what he did for NASA."

Kelly's brother, Scott Kelly, is also an astronaut and is currently serving as commander of the International Space Station.

In a Twitter message from space today, Scott Kelly said, "I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers, words of condolences and encouragement for the victims and their families."

Friends said the Giffords family had received an outpouring of support from NASA and the nation.

 Kelly, who lives in League City, trains up to 10 hours daily for his shuttle mission while his wife works in Washington, D.C. and Tuscon, Ariz. The couple have a strong bond and have fed off of each others' successes, friends said.

NASA uses Apollo data to prove that moon has a core

HUNTSVILLE, AL - Using Apollo-era data, a team led by a NASA scientist from Huntsville has found evidence of something long suspected - a core at the center of the moon similar to Earth's core.


The discovery was announced today in the online edition of Science, the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.


It's main significance, beyond the value of the science, is setting the stage for a series of planned and potential missions to further study the entire moon.


"We applied tried and true methodologies from terrestrial seismology to this legacy data set to present the first-ever direct detection of the moon's core," explained lead researcher Dr. Renee Weber, a NASA scientist at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.


That core consists of a solid, iron-rich inner core with a radius of nearly 150 miles and a fluid, primarily liquid-iron outer core with a radius of roughly 205 miles, researchers said. The core also contains a small percentage of light elements such as sulfur, which is also indicated in the Earth's core by new seismology research.


"The deepest interior of the moon has considerable structural similarities with the Earth," researchers said.


Apollo astronauts left four seismometers on the lunar surface between 1969 and 1972, and they recorded lunar seismic activity until late 1977.


The researchers examined years' worth of data about "moon-quakes," which a NASA news release called "seismic shudders possibly caused by the buildup of Earth's tidal forces on and within the moon."


The research team included Marshall Space Flight Center, Arizona State University, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris in France.

NASA Administrator Bolden's Comments at the AIAA New Horizons Forum

                                      

     Thank you for inviting me to join you today for the New Horizons forum. I want to acknowledge Dr. Ron Sega, my crewmate on STS-60, the first joint U.S./Russian space shuttle mission, for chairing this forum and for extending the original invitation for me to participate today. Thanks, Ron. This is a wonderful gathering.

It's my honor today to talk to you about a program that was a vital part of my 14-year NASA career. As you no doubt know, I was privileged to fly four times on the space shuttle -- on Columbia, Atlantis and Discovery twice. Being an astronaut and serving as a member of the NASA team provided me with some of the proudest moments of my life.

At NASA, the past year has been bittersweet. Each successive shuttle flight demonstrates the expertise of the phenomenal team that launches and returns our crews safely, and adds one more notch toward construction-complete of the International Space Station. Each mission showcases the amazing talents and expertise of our astronauts in robotics and science. The astronauts train for years for each flight and extra for their spacewalks, and as smoothly as they have gone, we forget how difficult they are. So it is impossible not to feel a little sadness that each flight brings us closer to the final voyage of one of our flagship programs, and the final chapter in one of the most storied eras in the history of human spaceflight. At the same time, we stand ready to vigorously launch the exciting new direction we've been given through a strongly bi-partisan Authorization Act.

The shuttle has provided this nation with many firsts, with many proud moments, and it has helped the United States to lead the world in space exploration

. I was fortunate enough to be part of two of its historic achievements: that first U.S./Russian shuttle mission, STS-60, that Ron and I flew together -- which presaged the unprecedented international cooperation we've achieved since on the International Space Station

-- and the deployment on STS-31 of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has redefined our perception of the universe; rewritten textbooks; and inspired a whole new generation of scientists and technology developers.

So, yes, we are understandably proud of the shuttle. It has served our nation and the world well. And while we naturally feel some sadness about the end of this program that has been operational now for 30 years, a bit like saying goodbye to an old friend, as I said, we are also thrilled to be on the cusp of a whole new era of exploration capabilities.

This generational change we're going through at NASA comes during a year of space milestones. We're approaching the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human in space on April 12th; the same day we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first shuttle mission, STS-1. I know Bob Crippen, pilot of that mission, moderated a panel here yesterday. Since STS-1, 360 individuals in total have flown on this amazing machine. Let me remind you that Bob's flight with John Young on STS-1 was still the only time in history that astronauts were aboard a spacecraft on its actual first test flight into space. I know yesterday's panel talked about the early days of the program, so I won't go over the tens of thousands of wind tunnel tests, or Marshall's vibration testing, or the endless refining of the designs for this vehicle that was largely theoretical up until it finally blasted off the pad in April 1981.

The shuttle is still an experimental vehicle in the purest sense. Even though we know many things about it and we are confident in our procedures and its systems, it is still very much a vehicle that continues to teach us, that we continue to refine, and from which we will apply many lessons learned to our next space systems.

We have learned technologically, operationally, and on a very human level from this program. For instance, while the outer mold line of the shuttle has not fundamentally changed since that first flight, constant improvements in technology have been incorporated throughout the program's life. Any future system will have to do the same - incorporating changes and upgrades as we fly and learn and apply new data to improve safety and make ever more challenging missions possible.

To name just a few of the upgrades we've made on the orbiter as we went along:

* We improved the vehicle's thermal protection system, toughened the tiles, and replaced them in many areas with more durable and less expensive blankets.

* We upgraded the cockpit displays and hardware to make them lighter in weight and easier to read for pilots.

* We developed GPS landing aids that help pilots pinpoint their runway target and angle of descent.

* We created an orbiter boom sensor system that can sweep the shuttle and inspect its protective skin for damage that can occur not only during launch, but also from orbital debris.

We've also made improvements over the life of the program to our propulsion systems: the reusable solid rocket motors, the solid rocket boosters, and the space shuttle main engines:

- Updates to the field, factory, and nozzle/case joints made after the Challenger tragedy improved reliability and safety of the RSRMs and SRBs.

- Continual process improvement and production upgrades have reduced RSRM costs significantly

- The main engines were the first reusable liquid booster engines designed for human spaceflight and have seen a number of upgrades. We went from Block I to the current Block II standard to optimize performance for the heavy payloads that would be required for ISS construction.

- The Advanced Health Monitoring System makes the SSMEs safer and works to autonomously detect and annunciate anomalies and even shut down an engine if required.

We've also improved the shuttle's external tank. Its original weight has decreased by over 18,000 pounds in the latest generation of super- lightweight tank.

After the Columbia tragedy, we improved our foam application processes, removed the protuberance air load ramp from the tank, and developed analytical models to help identify critical foam loss areas on the tank. This allowed the teams to focus foam application design changes on these critical areas. Ascent imagery was also greatly improved and this allowed the teams to insure that the tank design changes were having the desired effects.

The shuttle was built to accomplish a wide variety of different types of missions. In those early days we deployed numerous satellites for paying customers. These were scientific and defense satellites as well as commercial communications spacecraft, including communications satellites for many other countries. We retrieved them from space for repair. We demonstrated that humans could actually service a satellite in space.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory that, among many other things, documented the largest supernova ever observed, was deployed from a shuttle.

Many of the Tracking and Data Relay, or TDRS, satellites were launched from the shuttle. These satellites are not only used by NASA to maintain contact with the shuttles and the ISS, they also provide data services to the Hubble Space Telescope, and even the recent launch of the Dragon space capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket used TDRSS for communication.

One of the shuttle program's greatest achievements was the construction of the International Space Station - which simply would not have been possible otherwise. The station is an engineering marvel now coming into its own as a unique laboratory, and we are making plans for the next decade of its life. It's also a model of international cooperation that will serve us well in all our future global space enterprises.

The next generation of space transportation systems will need to be as flexible as the shuttle has been, while improving safety, taking advantage of changes in technology, and reducing costs. Some operational lessons we learned from shuttle include:

* A streamlining of our orbiter processing, something that will be essential as we anticipate a ramping up of demand for launch services by many parties.

* Those satellite-servicing missions I mentioned required us to innovate in many ways, including development of special tools that didn't exist before.

* Shuttle-Mir docking taught us many things we would later apply to rendezvous and docking operations with the ISS.

* We updated and improved our orbiter imaging and assessing capabilities, including the rendezvous pitch maneuver where the shuttle literally flips over so its belly can be viewed from the Station, and also developed the wing leading edge impact sensors, and the boom observation system that I earlier described.

Going forward, exploration will need to take advantage of a wide variety of partnerships, both domestically and internationally, to be successful. We learned a lot working with international partners over the past decades. With the Europeans, for instance, in planning and conducting SpaceLab missions and setting up TAL sites for launch abort support. Spacelab expanded the shuttle's ability to conduct science on-orbit. It helped forge the model of a large international joint venture involving government, industry, and science

with our European partners. And, it provided us with a versatile laboratory system several years before it would have been possible if we had to do it alone. SpaceLab also provided Europe with the systems development and management experience to move into the human space flight arena.

The Canadians were invaluable partners on the remote manipulator system and OBSS. The Russians taught us a tremendous amount during the Shuttle/Mir years and beyond, and all the international partnerships on ISS continue to be a learning experience, not only technically, but also culturally, as we become a space faring people on a global scale.

In addition to the technical accomplishments, and the discoveries it helped make possible, the shuttle transformed the face of human spaceflight. Astronauts have become a diverse group in every way - from the core expertise we still draw from the military, to citizen scientists, teachers and specialists in many areas. The program has been integral to providing flight opportunities for women and minorities.

We may have suffered somewhat from our own success. From making things look too easy. The loss of two crews shocked and saddened the world and made us realize with each accident how very hard the space enterprise is. How much astronauts put on the line to strap themselves to seven million pounds of thrust to escape the confines of Earth's gravity. Nevertheless, the public has gotten used to the routine of space launches - to the idea that we can put a 100 ton vehicle into space, dock with a space station, clamber around the outside of that outpost, perform amazing robotic feats, and come back safely.

As we move toward a true commercial capability for reaching low Earth orbit, it seems people are yearning even more for routine access to space - one of the unfilled promises of the original space transportation system. With greater commercial access to LEO, we're going to open up an entirely new segment of the economy and with this will come new high tech jobs. I hope we can all agree - as a nation, we're ready for that. We know we can do it; in part because of all that we have learned from shuttle, and the fact that we have flown more than 130 missions to space - more than any other NASA human spaceflight program.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 has recognized the importance to ISS of flying one more shuttle flight in addition to the two remaining on the manifest. We have looked at the safety aspects of that flight, and we have determined that this additional flight is as safe as previous flights and has adequate crew rescue capability if needed. We are currently planning to fly this additional flight, STS-135 - as the FY 2011 budget process sorts itself out. Meanwhile, there are the two regularly manifested flights in preparation and we look forward to their accomplishments. STS-133 will include delivery of the first robotic crew member to the station - Robonaut 2 (R2) - which will begin a new era of human and robotic partnership, and STS-134 will deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the ISS. The AMS will help us understand the origin and structure of the universe.

In the future, we've been directed to facilitate the success of the commercial sector to transport crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. To that end, our COTS and CCDev programs remain healthy. As we implement the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, they will see even more activity. SpaceX has made history with the launch of the Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon 9, successfully orbiting the Earth, and retrieving it after intact re-entry. Orbital Sciences recently successfully test fired its AJ26 engine for the Taurus rocket. The CCDev participants are working hard on their own systems and related businesses to support commercial transportation, and round two of that program will bring even more innovative ideas.

The Authorization Act also directs NASA to develop a Space Launch System, the heavy lift rocket that will carry us on the next generation of missions beyond LEO. The Authorization Act also puts us on the path to developing many new technologies that will benefit from our deep pool of knowledge from shuttle and help take us to the next level. Things like in- space propulsion systems, inflatable habitats, and in-orbit refueling. A lot of

these technologies that will take us beyond low Earth orbit are being discussed at this conference as they have been for years. Thanks to President Obama signing the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 after its passage by overwhelming bipartisan vote of the Congress, we now have a roadmap that will help us make progress on these critically needed technologies.

I can proudly say that the shuttle has been a huge benefit to society. Each mission has accomplished many objectives - from the high profile satellite deployments, to flying experiments for recognized researchers and school children. It's helped us improve communications on Earth and to understand our home planet better. It's set scientific satellites speeding on their missions into the solar system. It's given us tremendous knowledge about a reusable spacecraft and launch system from which future commercial systems will benefit. It's enabled construction of the station. It's given us unprecedented views of our planet.

We will never forget the sacrifices of our brave crews on Challenger and Columbia. Several were close personal friends whom I shall never forget. But we must also never forget the accomplishments, the joy, the knowledge and the pride this program has brought our country.

Human spaceflight survived in great part because of the shuttle program, and we are in a good position today as a result to continue the innovations we started with shuttle and take them to the next level. The inspiration of those engineers in the 1960s as they first batted about the idea of a blunt-nosed, reusable space vehicle have soared beyond anyone's wildest expectations. It is with great pride that as NASA Administrator, I will salute our remaining birds and their crews as they enter history and we stand on their shoulders to reach the future. Thank you.

Year of the UFO? Let's get real

Alan Boyle writes:What do WikiLeaks and mass bird die-offs have in common? Both anomalous phenomena have been linked in with the popular fascination with unidentified flying objects and the prospects for alien contact — all of which adds to a rising, under-the-media-radar buzz over unexplained phenomena.

The buzz is evident in the recent voting for the top space story of 2010: The past year's spate of UFO reports received the most votes in our unscientific end-of-year news poll. That doesn't prove anything ... except that there's a continuing level of interest in the UFO phenomenon. That interest is reflected as well in the results from opinion polls, the airing of TV shows such as "V" and the appetite for books such as "UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record."
Last month, at the height of the disclosures of confidential U.S. government files, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said there would be "references to UFOs" in yet-to-be-published sections of files — contributing to the long-running rumblings that the White House would soon make some admissions about alien contact.
The past week's mass deaths of birds in Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky and Sweden have also sparked speculation that invisible UFOs or stealth research projects were behind the die-offs. The reality is likely to be much more mundane: Statistics from the U.S. Geological Survey suggest that wildlife die-offs occur every few days, although the New Year's Eve blackbird blast in Arkansas rates among the top five of the past year. An Arkansas fish kill is likely to be traced to disease, based on the clues gathered so far. (Check out Cristine Russell's posting to The Observatory at Columbia Journalism Review for an aflockalypse timeline.)
And what about the pending WikiLeaks disclosure? Well, several countries — including Britain, Canada, France and New Zealand — have been releasing their UFO files over the past few years, so it wouldn't be surprising if U.S. diplomats cabled back some of the inside scoop about those files as they were coming to light.
In the meantime, the UFO buzz is sure to pick up whenever there's an anomaly to chew over ... even if the anomaly turns out to be bogus.
Extraterrestrial disclosures of a more scientific sort are also on their way in the weeks ahead. Here are a few to watch for:

• The Royal Society's detailed report about what we should do if we ever detect extraterrestrial life is due to go online Monday, according to a status update from one of the report's editors. For a preview of the findings, check out British UFO expert Nick Pope's commentary from October. 
• The American Astronomical Society is conducting its winter meeting in Seattle next week, and the program includes lots of references to super-Earths and other extrasolar planets, as well as the potential for identifying habitable environments. Could moons in the outer solar system have been "seeded" by meteorites from Earth or Mars? What's the latest in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Stay tuned for some thought-provoking studies in the days ahead.
• NASA's Kepler mission has identified more than 750 candidate planets, many of them smaller than Neptune and approaching the size of Earth. The $600 million mission has already turned up some weird planetary systems, including a pairing of giant planets in constantly changing orbits. The next big release of data from the mission is due to take place on Feb. 1, and that will likely bring a fresh crop of revelations in the planet search. The preliminary buzz over the Kepler data has been going on for months. Now the big reveal is almost upon us. Aliens, schmaliens: This is the real deal.

More about the planet search:

• Join the worldwide planet quest
• How many alien Earths? More than expected
• How do you find life on an alien planet?
• Interactive: The search for other planets
• Interactive: The new solar system

Astronaut Marsha Ivins Leaves NASA

"Marsha's incredible depth of mission experience and technical expertise has been a tremendous asset to this office," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We have relied on her expertise for years in many diverse areas, including but not limited to crew provisions, optimal hardware packing, human ratings development, vehicle habitability and orbiter preflight vehicle checks. Her expertise and dedication to NASA's mission will be sorely missed."

Ivins joined NASA in 1974 as an engineer. She worked on space shuttle displays, controls, man-machine engineering and the development of the orbiter's head-up display. She served in Johnson's aircraft operations as a flight engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft and copilot of the Gulfstream I.

Ivins was selected as an astronaut in 1984. She spent more than 1,300 hours in space during five shuttle flights: STS-32 in 1990, STS-46 in 1992, STS-62 in 1994, STS-81 in 1997 and STS-98 in 2001.

Ivins most recently worked within the Astronaut Office supporting the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs.

For Ivins' complete astronaut biographical information, visit:

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ivins.html

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov