Education, Space participation, Space Systems

SunSat Design Competition opens Indiegogo fundraising campaign.

June 9, 2013 TopSpacer

The International SunSat Design Competition, based at Ohio University, has opened a crowd-sourcing campaign to fund the contest: International SunSat Design Competition – Indiegogo. Here is an announcement about the effort:

SunSat Design Competition & Indiegogo Fundraising

Our SunSat Design Competition was officially launched last week at the International Space Development Conference in San Diego. This Competition – to generate multiple new designs for the next-generation satellites and earth/space architectures for delivering sun’s energy from space to earth – is a targeted project of the National Space Society and the Society of Satellite Professionals International. Ohio University has agreed to manage the two-year Competition, but money must be raised to make it happen.

SunSat Design Competition from John Bowditch on Vimeo.

Our Indiegogo micro-funding campaign has been extended for an additional 45 days in an effort to raise the full $110,000. Please help us by going to our new International SunSat Design Competition site on Indiegogo and make a contribution at one of the several funding levels. You are also encouraged to share this opportunity with others with mutual interests.

If you doubt your contribution will make a difference, take a look at the Lewis Fraas ISDC presentation on Reflective Sunlight that is in the process of being published by the Space Journal. Earlier this week, Dr. Fraas’ paper and the Ohio University student visualization of the concept he introduced in San Diego was shared with the India Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the India Institute of Space Sciences and Technology (IISST), via Dr. APJ Abdulkalam.

Global interest in space is growing. By using the creative talents of our universities, working cooperatively with our space professionals, we can help to accelerate public interest in these developments. Energy from space is one of those historically significant first steps. Your financial assistance of this important international initiative – added to the contributions of others – will make a difference. Please join us.

Contests and Games, Education, Science and Technology

NASA Sample Return Robot Challenge competition update

June 9, 2013 TopSpacer

None of the robots fielded by 11 teams in NASA’s Sample Return Robot Challenge completed the requirements to win the $1.5M competition in this years event, which was held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) June 5-7 in Worcester, Massachusetts. The goal is to “demonstrate a robot that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control.”

There was, however, considerable improvement in overall performance as compared to the event last and one team did complete the first phase and received a $5k prize for that accomplishment.

WPI is managing the contest, which has been held twice so far. There will be presumably be another competition event next year. Here are two WPI sites related to the challenge:

Here’s a local article about the competition: Party at WPI – Worcester Telegram & Gazette – telegram.com.

And here is an official press release from NASA:

NASA Awards Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge Prize

After two days of extensive competition, Team Survey of Los Angeles was awarded $5,000 in prize money after successfully completing Level 1 of the Sample Return Robot Challenge, a part of NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program.

The event, hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) June 5-7 in Worcester, Mass., drew robotics teams from the United States, Canada and Estonia to compete for a total of $1.5 million in NASA prize money. Eleven teams arrived to compete at WPI; 10 teams passed the initial inspection and took to the challenge field. After two rounds of Level 1 competition, Team Survey met the $5,000 prize requirements and was declared the winner of this year’s competition.

Sample Return Robot Challenge (201306050010HQ)

A NASA 2013 Sample Return Robot Challenge staff member raises a pause
flag as the AERO (Autonomous Exploration RObot) robot attempts level one of the
challenge at Institute Park, Wednesday, June 5, 2013, Worcester Polytechnic
Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass.

Team Survey members Jascha Little, Russel Howe, Zac Lizer, Tommy Smith, Zoe Stephenson, Scott Little, Brandon Booth, and Joanna Balme, all from Los Angeles, were presented a check June 8 by NASA’s Larry Cooper, Centennial Challenges program executive, at the opening of the TouchTomorrow technology festival. A WPI organized science and robotics festival attracted thousands of attendees, showcasing the teams and robots as well as NASA and WPI exhibits in science, robotics and space technology.

“It is evident from the level of improvements the teams have shown from last year’s event to this week’s Level 1 win that the technology has significantly progressed, and the desired results of this challenge are within reach,” said Sam Ortega, program manager of Centennial Challenges. “We are so proud of the great spirit and camaraderie the teams have shown, as well. It speaks volumes about the caliber of teams and individuals who compete in these events.”

NASA uses prize competitions to increase the number and diversity of the individuals, organizations and teams that are addressing a particular problem or challenge. Prize competitions stimulate private sector investment that is many times greater than the cash value of the prize and further NASA’s mission by attracting interest and attention to a defined technical objective.

To win prize dollars, teams were required to demonstrate a robot that can locate and collect samples from a wide and varied terrain, operating without human control. The objective of the challenge was to encourage innovations in autonomous navigation and robotics technologies.

Team Survey’s robot successfully completed Level 1 by navigating from the starting platform and locating a sample that was previously identified in the robot’s onboard computer. The robot then autonomously returned one undamaged sample to its starting platform within the 30-minute time limit. No teams made it to the second level of the competition this year.

Returning teams this year included SpacePRIDE of Graniteville, S.C.; Survey of Los Angeles; Wunderkammer of Topanga, Calif.; Intrepid of Lynnwood, Wash.; and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. New teams entering the competition this year were Fetch of Alexandria, Va.; Middleman of Dunedin, Fla.; Mystic Lake Robots of The Woodlands, Texas; Team AERO of Worcester, Mass.; the Autonomous Rover Team of the University of California at Santa Cruz; and Kuukuglur of Estonia.

NASA’s Centennial Challenges program is part of the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA’s future missions. For more information about the Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Centennial Challenges Program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

History, Space Policy

Interview with John Glenn

June 9, 2013 TopSpacer

Moonandback posts an interview with John Glenn about a range of space issues: Research & Education: An Interview With John Glenn – Moonandback

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Space Science

Opportunity on the move again

June 9, 2013 TopSpacer

The Opportunity Rover keeps on exploring. Here is an update on what it has been doing lately and where it is going next (see slideshow):

Mars Rover Opportunity Trekking Toward More Layers

PASADENA, Calif. – Approaching its 10th anniversary of leaving Earth, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is on the move again, trekking to a new study area still many weeks away.

The destination, called “Solander Point,” offers Opportunity access to a much taller stack of geological layering than the area where the rover has worked for the past 20 months, called “Cape York.” Both areas are raised segments of the western rim of Endeavour Crater, which is about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter.

“Getting to Solander Point will be like walking up to a road cut where you see a cross section of the rock layers,” said Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the mission.

Solander Point also offers plenty of ground that is tilted toward the north, which is favorable for the solar-powered rover to stay active and mobile through the coming Martian southern-hemisphere winter.

“We’re heading to a 15-degree north-facing slope with a goal of getting there well before winter,” said John Callas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for the Mars Exploration Rover Project. The minimum-sunshine days of this sixth Martian winter for Opportunity will come in February 2014.

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Project launched twin rovers in 2003: Spirit on June 10 and Opportunity on July 7. Both rovers landed in January 2004, completed three-month prime missions and began years of bonus, extended missions. Both found evidence of wet environments on ancient Mars. Spirit ceased operations during its fourth Martian winter, in 2010. Opportunity shows symptoms of aging, such as loss of motion in some joints, but continues to accomplish groundbreaking exploration and science.

Shortly before leaving Cape York last month, Opportunity used the rock abrasion tool, the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and the microscopic imager on its robotic arm to examine a rock called “Esperance” and found a combination of elements pointing to clay-mineral composition.

“The Esperance results are some of the most important findings of our entire mission,” said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the mission. “The composition tells us about the environmental conditions that altered the minerals. A lot of water moved through this rock.”

Cape York exposes just a few yards, or meters, of vertical cross-section through geological layering. Solander Point exposes roughly 10 times as much. Researchers hope to find evidence about different stages in the history of ancient Martian environments. The rim of Endeavour Crater displays older rocks than what Opportunity examined at Eagle, Endurance, Victoria and Santa Maria craters during the first eight years of the rover’s work on Mars.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. For more about Spirit and Opportunity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .