Monthly Archives: May 2014

Solar Science, Space participation, Space Systems

NASA green-lights citizen science group’s effort to contact & redirect ISEE-3 spacecraft

I’ve written about the ISEE-3 Reboot Project effort by a private non-profit group to reconnect with NASA’s 35 year old International Sun-Earth Explorers (ISSE) spacecraft and direct it back to its original solar science mission. The group recently carried out a successful crowd-funding campaign to pay for the initial phase of the project. NASA has now given them the green-light to communicate with and take control of the spacecraft:

NASA Signs Agreement with Citizen Scientists Attempting
to Communicate with Old Spacecraft

NASA has given a green light to a group of citizen scientists attempting to breathe new scientific life into a more than 35-year old agency spacecraft.

The agency has signed a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) with Skycorp, Inc., in Los Gatos, California, allowing the company to attempt to contact, and possibly command and control, NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft as part of the company’s ISEE-3 Reboot Project. This is the first time NASA has worked such an agreement for use of a spacecraft the agency is no longer using or ever planned to use again.

international_cometary_explorer_isee3_art[1]International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3)

The NRSAA details the technical, safety, legal and proprietary issues that will be addressed before any attempts are made to communicate with or control the 1970’s-era spacecraft as it nears the Earth in August.

“The intrepid ISEE-3 spacecraft was sent away from its primary mission to study the physics of the solar wind extending its mission of discovery to study two comets.” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “We have a chance to engage a new generation of citizen scientists through this creative effort to recapture the ISEE-3 spacecraft as it zips by the Earth this summer.”

Launched in 1978 to study the constant flow of solar wind streaming toward Earth, ISEE-3 successfully completed its prime mission in 1981. With remaining fuel and functioning instruments, it then was redirected to observe two comets. Following the completion of that mission, the spacecraft continued in orbit around the sun. It is now making its closest approach to Earth in more than 30 years.

The goal of the ISEE-3 Reboot Project is to put the spacecraft into an orbit at   a gravitationally stable point between Earth and the sun known as Lagrangian 1 (L1). Once safely back in orbit, the next step would be to return the spacecraft to operations and use its instruments as they were originally designed. ISEE-3’s close approach in the coming weeks provides optimal conditions to attempt communication. If communications are unsuccessful, the spacecraft will swing by the moon and continue to orbit the sun.

NASA has shared technical data with these citizen scientists to help them communicate with and return data from ISEE-3. The contributions of any citizen science provided by the spacecraft, if it is successfully recovered, depend on the current condition of its instruments. New data resulting from the project will be shared with the science community and the public, providing a unique tool for teaching students and the public about spacecraft operations and data gathering. The data also will provide valuable information about the effects of the space environment on the 36-year old spacecraft.

The ISEE-3 mission opened new pathways for scientific exploration, helping scientists better understand the sun-Earth system, which at its most turbulent can affect satellites around Earth and disrupt our technological infrastructure.

To learn more about the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, visit: http://spacecollege.org/isee3

To learn more about ISEE-3, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/1mSskQs

Solar Science, Space Policy, Space Science

Video: NASA’s exploration program

A reader points me to this video of a presentation given in the UK by NASA’s Chief Scientist, Dr Ellen Stofan and Deputy Chief Technologist, Jim Adams  for the Royal Institution of Great Britain. They give

an overview of NASA’s plans to develop a human exploration pathway to Mars, including ideas for a human mission to an asteroid.

Asteroids & Comets, Astronomy, Space participation

NASA and Slooh partner on hazardous asteroid search

A message from NASA and the SLOOH on line astronomy organization:

NASA Teams with Web Tech Company Slooh to Bring
Universe to Everyone and Help Protect Earth Too

As part of the agency’s Asteroid Grand Challenge, NASA is partnering with private internet technology company Slooh to engage citizen scientists in the effort to track and characterize near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) that are potentially hazardous to human populations.

Slooh’s global network of web-connected telescopes will be available for use by amateur astronomers for monitoring and characterizing NEOs. Citizen scientists without access to professional equipment will have the opportunity to be a part of the global challenge to find hazardous NEOs. NASA also is partnering with Slooh on live astronomy events.

“We are excited by the opportunity to tap into Slooh’s network of amateur astronomers, who are already producing scientific papers with their work,” said Jason Kessler, program executive for the Asteroid Grand Challenge. “We look forward to expanding the meaningful science the Slooh network can provide in support of the grand challenge.”

The live astronomy events on which NASA and Slooh will partner include the LINEAR comet meteor shower, occurring Friday, May 23, and Saturday, May 24. Slooh will provide live feeds of the event from 6 p.m. EDT Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday on the company’s website and the UStream feed for NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-msfc

Live astronomy events through the NASA and Slooh platforms increase the number of people who can watch and actively participate in science as it happens. Future events will include NASA experts offering commentary on live events. Slooh plans to provide NASA with relevant observation data from these events, which may be used for grand challenge citizen science efforts.

“This partnership is a great validation of our approach to engage the public in the exploration of space,” says Michael Paolucci, founder and CEO of Slooh. “NASA understands the importance of citizen science and knows a good way to get amateur astronomers involved is to offer them ways to do productive astronomy. Slooh does that by giving them remote access to great telescopes situated at leading observatory sites around the world.”

The Asteroid Grand Challenge is built on such collaborative efforts. The partnership with Slooh augments grand challenge partnerships with SpaceGambit and Planetary Resources Inc., and extending the search from existing data to direct observation through telescopes.

Through NASA’s asteroid initiative, the agency seeks to enhance its ongoing work in the identification and characterization of near-Earth objects for further scientific investigation. This work includes locating potentially hazardous asteroids and identifying those viable for redirection to a stable lunar orbit for future exploration by astronauts. The Asteroid Grand Challenge, one part of the asteroid initiative, expands the agency’s efforts beyond traditional boundaries and encourages partnerships and collaboration with a variety of organizations.

For more information on NASA’s asteroid initiative, visit:  http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

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Here is a video from Slooh about the program:

Space Policy

Space policy roundup – May.22.14 [Update]

A selection of space policy/politics related links:

[ Update:

]

Webcasts:

* Alan Boyle & Rand Simberg • Safety in Space Flight? 05/21 by Jay Ackroyd – Science Podcasts – “U.S. space effort’s aversion to risk stunts our expansion into the final frontier and made America more dependent on Russia. Rand Simberg “recovering aerospace engineer” and author of Safe Is Not an Option, talks with Alan Boyle.”

[ Update: An article by Alan Boyle previewing the above webcast: Safety First? It’s Time for a Fresh Look at the Risks of Spaceflight – NBC News.com.]

* Tues 5/20/14 Hr 3 | John Batchelor Show – Bob Zimmerman (second guest) reports on the latest space news and policy issues.

* Wed 5/21/14 Hr 1 | John Batchelor Show – On the weekly Mars Hotel segment with David Livingston of The Space Show, Anatoly Zak of the Russian Space Web discussed Russian space issues.

 

Uncategorized

Video: Testing a brake for Mars

I posted back in April about  NASA’s Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator program, which set up a very elaborate multi-part system to test a parachute for slowing probes going into the Martian atmosphere. Here is a follow-up video about the program:

In  part 2, JPL engineer Mike Meacham explains how an inflatable decelerator will help larger spacecraft land on Mars. The device will be tested at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii in June, 2014.