JPL’s Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission, gives a review of Curiosity’s first year on Mars:
Videos: NASA commercial crew program + This Week @ NASA
A couple of NASA videos of interest:
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NASA’s Commercial Crew Program captures the rich history of human spaceflight and the American spirit as it works with the aerospace industry to chart new adventures and seeks to find safe and cost-effective ships to sail to the International Space Station.
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In his keynote address at the Aviation 2013 conference in Los Angeles, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden shared a new strategic vision for the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate designed to help address looming challenges in global air transportation. The same day of Bolden’s speech … the Federal Aviation Administration announced a new computer software tool developed by NASA may soon help controllers better manage airline departures. Also, Bolden Briefed on Earth Missions, Martian Moons Eclipse Each Other, Airborne Mission Begins, Russian Spacewalk, Learning for the GLOBAL Environment, ADEPT Heat Protection, Stationary Orion Recovery Test, Dream Chaser Tow Test, Small Sat Conference and more!
Mars Society & Inspiration Mars announce student design contest with $21,000 in prizes
An announcement from the Mars Society and Inspiration Mars:
Mars Society Launches International Student Design Competition
Students to propose design concepts for Inspiration Mars mission
(BOULDER, Colo.) – Today during the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention, the Mars Society announced the launch of an international engineering competition for student teams to propose design concepts for the architecture of the Inspiration Mars mission. The contest is open to university engineering student teams from anywhere in the world.
Inspiration Mars Executive Director Dennis Tito and Program Manager Taber MacCallum were present for the announcement. “Inspiration Mars is looking for the most creative ideas from engineers all over the world,” said Tito. “Furthermore, we want to engage the explorers of tomorrow with a real and exciting mission, and demonstrate what a powerful force space exploration can be in inspiring young people to develop their talent. This contest will accomplish both of those objectives.”
The requirement is to design a two-person Mars flyby mission for 2018 as cheaply, safely and simply as possible. All other design variables are open.
Alumni, professors and other university staff may participate as well, but the teams must be predominantly composed of and led by students. All competition presentations must be completed exclusively by students. Teams will be required to submit their design reports in writing by March 15, 2014. From there, a down-select will occur with the top 10 finalist teams invited to present and defend their designs before a panel of six judges chosen (two each) by the Mars Society, Inspiration Mars and NASA. The presentations will take place during a public event at NASA Ames Research Center in April 2014.
Designs will be evaluated using a scoring system, allocating a maximum of 30 points for cost, 30 points for technical quality of the design, 20 points for operational simplicity and 20 points for schedule with a maximum total of 100 points. The first place team will receive a prize of $10,000, an all-expenses paid trip to the 2014 International Mars Society Convention and a trophy to be presented by Dennis Tito at that event. Prizes of $5,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 will also be awarded for second through fifth place.
All designs submitted will be published, and Inspiration Mars will be given non-exclusive rights to make use of any ideas contained therein.
Commenting on the contest, Mars Society President Dr. Robert Zubrin said, “The Mars Society is delighted to lead this effort. This contest will provide an opportunity for legions of young engineers to directly contribute their talent to this breakthrough project to open the space frontier.”
Further information about the Mars Society may be found at www.marssociety.org.
Further information about Inspiration Mars may be found at http://www.inspirationmars.org.
Space on the John Batchelor Show this week: Bob Zimmerman & Hotel Mars
During his two visits on the John Batchelor radio program this week, Bob Zimmerman spoke about the following topics:
- Air Force to shut part of its orbital space tracking system.
- ATK joins Stratolaunch.
- Serious problems with SpaceShipTwo?
- Bob’s op-ed in the WSJ on the SLS boondoggle
- Orion delays and overruns
- Sierra Nevada testing Dream Chaser crew vehicle
- SpaceX Grasshopper does sideways flight test
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And on the weekly Hotel Mars segment, David Livingston and Batchelor talked with Dr. David Brain about the NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), which will launch to the Red Planet in November: John Batchelor Hotel Mars, Wednesday, 8-14-13 | Thespaceshow’s Blog
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Here are videos of the recent Grasshopper test that Bob mentioned:
Kepler must switch to other missions – no reaction wheel fix found
Efforts to resurrect the broken reaction wheels on the Kepler space observatory have failed. The spacecraft can still do useful science but not exoplanet transit searches, which requires the extremely stable and precise pointing capabilities provided by 3 working reaction wheels.