Planned Rover Test to Run a Week or More - 08.13.09

Mars rover team members are planning a long-duration experiment with the test rover at JPL beginning next week. This test will check whether favorable motion seen in earlier tests can be sustained to gain as much distance in the sandbox as Spirit would need to complete on Mars to escape its predicament.

A test setup at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory enables experiments with maneuvers being considered for use by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to get Spirit out of soft soil where it has become embedded.

The team expects to drive the test rover for several hundred meters, or yards, worth of wheel rotations over the course of a week or more without starting over. Steering direction will be changed several times during the run. Earlier tests have run for one or two days. In between tests, the team resets the sandbox to simulate Spirit's current starting position at the Mars location called "Troy."

Based on test results, the team might begin sending driving commands to Spirit during the second week of September. Any progress by Spirit toward getting out of the soft soil where it is embedded is expected to be slow. With its right front wheel disabled since 2006, Spirit's success at getting out of the sand trap is not guaranteed. Both Spirit and Opportunity have operated on Mars more than five years longer than their initially planned missions of three months.

During the weeks of testing at JPL designed to identify the best escape strategy, Spirit has been productively using the tools on its robotic arm to analyze multiple layers of soil at Troy.

For more information visit nasa.gov

Braille Displays Get New Life With Artificial Muscles

Research with tiny artificial muscles may yield a full-page active Braille system that can refresh automatically and come to life right beneath your fingertips.

Yosi-Bar Cohen, a senior researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, was inspired during a business trip to Washington, D.C., where a convention for people with visual impairments was taking place.

Bar-Cohen came up with an idea to create a "living Braille," a digital, refreshable Braille device using electroactive polymers, also known as artificial muscles. He wrote up a technology report and included information in a related book that he published. His writings inspired other scientists and engineers to create active displays using this technology, and prototypes are now under development around the world.

A blind person uses the dielectric elastomer EAP based refreshable Braille display developed at Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.Credit: HR Choi, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.

"I hope that sometime in the future we will have Braille on an iPhone. It will be portable and able to project a picture of a neighborhood popping up in front of you in the form of raised dots," said Bar-Cohen. "A digital Braille operated by artificial muscles could provide for rapid information exchange, such as e-mail, text messaging and access to the web and other electronic databases or archives."

According to the World Health Organization, about 314 million people are visually impaired worldwide; 45 million of them are blind.

Recently, Bar-Cohen was contacted by the Center for Braille Innovation of the Boston-based National Braille Press to reach out to the Electroactive Polymer community and take advantage of his role in this field. The National Braille Press is a non-profit Braille printing and publishing house that promotes the literacy of blind children through Braille.

Current Braille Display Technologies

The challenge for creating an active Braille display is in packing many small dots into a tiny volume.

Unlike hardcopy Braille, a refreshable display requires the raising and lowering of a large number of densely packed dots that allow a person to quickly read them. Currently, commercial active Braille devices are limited to a single line of characters. A full page of Braille typically has 25 lines of up to 40 characters per line. Characters are represented by six or eight dots per cell, arranged in two columns. To produce a page of refreshable Braille using electroactive polymers requires individually activating and controlling thousands of raiseable dots.

Developing New Braille Technologies

Some of the leading-edge work in Braille technology was developed at SRI in Menlo Park, Calif. Richard Heydt, a senior research engineer there who was involved in developing a prototype says, "The electroactive polymer technology seems to be a natural fit for Braille and tactile display applications."

The Braille display developed at SRI is based on activating a type of polymer consisting of a thin sheet of acrylic that deforms in response to voltage applied across the film. The individual Braille dots are defined by a pattern on this film, and each dot is independently activated to produce the dot combinations for Braille letters and numbers.

In currently available active refreshable Braille displays, each dot is a pin driven by a small motor or electromagnetic coil. In contrast, in the SRI display the actuators are defined regions on a single sheet of film. Thus, while each dot is raised or lowered by its own applied voltage, there are no motors, bulky actuators, or similar components. Since the system has far fewer discrete components for a Braille dot array, it would be potentially much lower in cost.

A Braille display using dielectric elastomer EAP using bubble shape dots. Credit: HR Choi, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea.

"The contributions of the developers of electroactive materials to making a low-cost, active Braille display would significantly improve the life of many people with visual impairments, while advancing the field to benefit other applications" said Bar-Cohen.

Looking for the 'Holy Braille'

The Boston-based National Braille Press has recently established a Center for Braille Innovation. They're looking for the "Holy Braille," a full-page electronic Braille display, at a low cost.

"We feel that the exciting field of electroactive polymer technology has matured to the point where it can provide real solutions for Braille displays. We welcome and encourage anyone who wants to take part in Braille innovation," said Noel H. Runyan, National Braille Press, Center for Braille Innovation

In the spring of 2010, Bar-Cohen is including a special session on tactile displays at an SPIE conference. SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics. Tactile displays will be presented and possibly demonstrated at the conference. He hopes these baby steps may someday lead to a full-page Braille system that will allow people to feel and "see" the universe beneath their fingers.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information visit nasa.gov

All in the Family - Kennedy Space center

Besides being sisters, Sharon Lane, Karon Buchner and Teresa Strobush have another important thing in common - they all work at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with a combined 106 years on the job.

Lane, the oldest of the three, is an operations and processing specialist in the Requirements Verification and Data Retention Department for United Space Alliance. She works in Operations Support Building II and reviews and closes work authorization documents for ground support equipment modifications. Lane worked for Federal Electric Corp. beginning in June 1971, and then moved to Computer Science Corp., Grumman, Lockheed and Lockheed Martin through contract transitions, before settling in with USA.

Lane said one of the challenges of her job is staying focused on the importance of safety first, meeting schedules, but never forgetting that lives and hardware depend on following set procedures. "For 38 years I've been part of making history," Lane said. "I'm literally doing what others dream."

Lane said their father worked at Cape Kennedy, before it was Kennedy Space Center, as a firefighter. "I was always fascinated by his job. As long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be here.

Image above: From left, sisters Sharon Lane, Teresa Strobush and Karon Buchner have a combined 106 years of service at Kennedy Space Center. Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann

"We hardly see each other, but just knowing they are not far away is very comforting, and if we need each other, we're there," Lane said. She described a time when her sister, Buchner, was attending a meeting in her building and they walked outside to see the shuttle landing. "It struck me then that of all the time we have worked at the center, this was the first time we had ever been together to view any of the launch or landing activities," Lane said.

Buchner is a program analyst for NASA in the Launch Vehicle Processing Directorate. She is the Kennedy budget manager for Ares I-X. During her junior year in high school, she had the opportunity to join NASA as part of the Stay in School Program. After graduation, she was offered a full-time job. "I loved being part of the team making the space exploration dream come alive," Buchner said. "I worked full time and went to school at night to get a Bachelor of Science degree in computer information systems."

She said the best part of her job is seeing a project from development through implementation. "One of the challenges is being able to find ways to mitigate the never-ending budget challenges," Buchner said.

The youngest of the three, Strobush works in the Business Office of the Information Technology and Communications Services Directorate. She started working at Kennedy when she was 15 through a school work program, with her parents' permission. "I thought it was a great opportunity. I saw that my sisters were enjoying their work with the space program," Strobush said.

One of the best parts of her job is being able to help workers get the materials they need to do their jobs and meet their milestones. "It's nice to have someone you love close to you all the time," Strobush added. "It's nice to have your big sisters here for support, when needed."

Strobush said she's looking forward to the U.S. going back to the moon. "I was a little young when we did it the first time, so it would be great to be able to support the program to get us there again.

"Our mom was very proud of all of us working and making a difference in the space program," Strobush said.

"I hope the Constellation program will be a major leap in learning about our universe and I hope I get a chance to be a part of that contribution to science," Lane said.

Buchner hopes the government will continue to see the many benefits NASA has provided and will continue to fund the space exploration dream. "With the transition from shuttle to Constellation, Kennedy has critical skills, processes and facilities to support more than just operations," Buchner said. "Kennedy can continue to provide support to development, fabrication and implementation of the new program."

Other family members at the center included Lane's husband, Skip, who retired after 38 years; their sister-in-law, Debbie Hamm, who worked as a buyer for the NASA Exchange for 18 years; Robbie Watts, who worked for USA; Jennifer (Buchner) Watts, Jason Buchner and Shawn Hamm.

Linda Herridge
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

For more information visit nasa.gov

NASA Satellites Unlock Secret to Northern India's Vanishing Water

Beneath northern India’s irrigated fields of wheat, rice, and barley ... beneath its densely populated cities of Jaiphur and New Delhi, the groundwater has been disappearing. Halfway around the world, hydrologists, including Matt Rodell of NASA, have been hunting for it.

NASA Hydrologist Matt Rodell discusses vanishing groundwater in India. Credit: NASA

Where is northern India’s underground water supply going? According to Rodell and colleagues, it is being pumped and consumed by human activities -- principally to irrigate cropland -- faster than the aquifers can be replenished by natural processes. They based their conclusions -- published in the August 20 issue of Nature -- on observations from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE).

"If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water," said Rodell, who is based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Groundwater resides beneath the soil surface in permeable rock, clay and sand as illustrated in this conceptual image. Many aquifers extend hundreds of feet underground and in some instances have filled with water over the course of thousands of years. Credit: NASA

Groundwater comes from the natural percolation of precipitation and other surface waters down through Earth’s soil and rock, accumulating in aquifers -- cavities and layers of porous rock, gravel, sand, or clay. In some of these subterranean reservoirs, the water may be thousands to millions of years old; in others, water levels decline and rise again naturally each year.

Groundwater levels do not respond to changes in weather as rapidly as lakes, streams, and rivers do. So when groundwater is pumped for irrigation or other uses, recharge to the original levels can take months or years.

Changes in underground water masses affect gravity enough to provide a signal, such that changes in gravity can be translated into a measurement of an equivalent change in water.

The map, showing groundwater withdrawals as a percentage of groundwater recharge, is based on state-level estimates of annual withdrawals and recharge reported by India's Ministry of Water Resources. The three states included in this study are labeled. Credit: NASA/Matt Rodell

"Water below the surface can hide from the naked eye, but not from GRACE," said Rodell. The twin satellites of GRACE can sense tiny changes in Earth’s gravity field and associated mass distribution, including water masses stored above or below Earth’s surface. As the satellites orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface, their positions change -- relative to each other -- in response to variations in the pull of gravity. The satellites fly roughly 137 miles apart, and microwave ranging systems measure every microscopic change in the distance between the two.

With previous research in the United States having proven the accuracy of GRACE in detecting groundwater, Rodell and colleagues Isabella Velicogna, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of California-Irvine, and James Famiglietti, of UC-Irvine, were looking for a region where they could apply the new technique.

"Using GRACE satellite observations, we can observe and monitor water changes in critical areas of the world, from one month to the next, without leaving our desks," said Velicogna. "These satellites provide a window to underground water storage changes."

The northern Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana have all of the ingredients for groundwater depletion: staggering population growth, rapid economic development and water-hungry farms, which account for about 95 percent of groundwater use in the region.

Data provided by India's Ministry of Water Resources suggested groundwater use was exceeding natural replenishment, but the regional rate of depletion was unknown. Rodell and colleagues had their case study. The team analyzed six years of monthly GRACE gravity data for northern India to produce a time series of water storage changes beneath the region’s land surface.

The averaging function (spatial weighting) used to estimate terrestrial water storage changes from GRACE data is mapped. Warmer colors indicate greater sensitivity to terrestrial water storage changes. Credit: NASA/Matt Rodell

They found that groundwater levels have been declining by an average of one meter every three years (one foot per year). More than 109 cubic km (26 cubic miles) of groundwater disappeared between 2002 and 2008 -- double the capacity of India's largest surface water reservoir, the Upper Wainganga, and triple that of Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the United States.

"We don’t know the absolute volume of water in the Northern Indian aquifers, but GRACE provides strong evidence that current rates of water extraction are not sustainable," said Rodell. "The region has become dependent on irrigation to maximize agricultural productivity, so we could be looking at more than a water crisis."

The loss is particularly alarming because it occurred when there were no unusual trends in rainfall. In fact, rainfall was slightly above normal for the period.

As animated here, groundwater storage varied in northwestern India between 2002 and 2008, relative to the mean for the period. These deviations from the mean are expressed as the height of an equivalent layer of water, ranging from -12 cm (deep red) to 12 cm (dark blue). Credit: NASA/Trent Schindler and Matt Rodell
› Download animation (9 Mb mp4)

The researchers examined data and models of soil moisture, lake and reservoir storage, vegetation and glaciers in the nearby Himalayas, in order to confirm that the apparent groundwater trend was real. Nothing unusual showed up in the natural environment.

The only influence they couldn’t rule out was human.

"At its core, this dilemma is an age-old cycle of human need and activity -- particularly the need for irrigation to produce food," said Bridget Scanlon, a hydrologist at the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas in Austin. "That cycle is now overwhelming fresh water reserves all over the world. Even one region’s water problem has implications beyond its borders."

"For the first time, we can observe water use on land with no additional ground-based data collection," Famiglietti said. "This is critical because in many developing countries, where hydrological data are both sparse and hard to access, space-based methods provide perhaps the only opportunity to assess changes in fresh water availability across large regions."

Related Links:

› India's Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future (pdf, 2005)
› GRACE mission page at JPL
› GRACE mission page at University of Texas
› Who is Matt Rodell?
› Who is James Famiglietti?
› Who is Isabella Velicogna?
› Getting at Groundwater with Gravity
› Earth’s Weighty Wellsprings
› The Water Cycle

Related Image

The map shows groundwater changes in India during 2002-08, with losses in red and gains in blue, based on GRACE satellite observations. The estimated rate of depletion of groundwater in northwestern India is 4.0 centimeters of water per year, equivalent to a water table decline of 33 centimeters per year. Increases in groundwater in southern India are due to recent above-average rainfall, whereas rain in northwestern India was close to normal during the study period. Credit: I. Velicogna/UC Irvine

Gretchen Cook-Anderson
NASA Earth Science News Team

For more information visit nasa.gov

Visits to Pad Show Scorched Metal, Melted Plastic

If you’ve ever wondered what a launch pad looks like right after the space shuttle thunders off into space, there’s a team of engineers to ask.

Called the post-launch inspection team, they head out to the launch pad to instantly appraise damage at the pad and look for debris. They look over every part of the launch complex, despite the fresh layer of exhaust residue left by the solid rocket boosters.

“You see a lot of scorched metal, some bent,” said Jeff Painter, who has seen launch pads after liftoffs for more than 20 years.

Because the elevators are not working after launch, the engineers have to take the stairs all the way up the fixed service structure.

“There’s definitely a chemical, metallic smell,” said Tom Carlon, who’s been on the inspection team for two years.

Members of the post-launch inspection team examine the hold-down posts after space shuttle Discovery launched on the STS-127 mission. The team is made up of engineers who specialize in certain areas of the launch pad. The hold-down posts connect to the bottom of the twin solid rocket boosters. Four bolts on each booster hold the shuttle stack to the launch pad and then release it at launch. Photo credit: United Space Alliance/John Seaman

Wildlife trekking back in only adds to the surreal atmosphere, such as the time a group of piglets was heading to the launch pad’s surface at the same time as the inspection team.

Looking over the launch pad after a shuttle liftoff used to be akin to developing a catalog of destruction. Melted speakers would wrap around poles or columns in the launch tower, drink containers tucked away and forgotten would be jarred loose and strewn about, and a few tools, such as wire brushes, would be found on the launch pad or in the blast zone.

Things have changed, though, and now far fewer things are left behind to get tossed around in the exhaust of a launching shuttle’s 7 million pounds of flame and turbulence. There’s still the occasional melted speaker, however.

Eric Linderman, who leads the post-launch team, said the group found no left-behind items at the launch pad after Endeavour climbed into orbit for the STS-127 mission. That was a first for the Space Shuttle Program. There were a few items that were blasted loose by the exhaust.

Any item found during the inspection gets evaluated to find out where it came from and why it came loose. The idea is to prevent the same thing from coming loose during a future launch. Loose items can ricochet around the pad area and potentially impact the shuttle as it climbs off the pad.

If the shuttle’s gigantic external tank is fueled but there is no launch, the team goes into “post-drainback inspection” mode. That means they head out to the pad after the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen have been emptied from the tank. Just like the Final Inspection Team, which studies the outside of the shuttle in the closing hours of a countdown, the post-drainback group looks for signs of ice buildup, cracks in the tank foam, or for potential debris that might have been missed earlier.

“It’s kind of awe-inspiring because it’s just the vehicle and just you,” Linderman said.

Eight engineers, all volunteers, make the trip to the pad. They generally wear shorts and T-shirts beneath the mandatory white flame-retardant coveralls. Helmets and tethers complete the outfits depending on where they are working at the pad complex.

“You might think that nighttime is a relief,” said team member Kurt Stresau. “But eight months out of the year, the mosquitoes make sure you are quickly disillusioned.”

But don’t think they don’t enjoy it.

“Not a lot of people get to do this,” Carlon said.

Richard Villanueva took part in his first inspection during the STS-127 launch, which included four tankings before it launched. That meant five chances for the team to go out and look over Endeavour.

“For me, it was just a great chance to learn,” Villanueva said. “Just the whole experience of getting to go out there, not knowing what to expect and learning from the experience of everybody else.”

Eric Linderman, right, talks to the post-launch inspection team before they head out onto the launch platform. The team splits into two groups to complete the pad inspections after a liftoff. Photo credit: United Space Alliance/John Seaman

Split into two teams, it takes two to three hours to complete the survey, which includes looking for signs of dented piping or loose bricks inside the flame trench.

Each of the engineers knows a specific area of the launch pad and evaluates that area closely during the inspection. When it’s finished, they can offer a conclusive report of what items broke loose, what should be replaced or moved to a different part of the pad, and what damage parts of the pad incurred, such as the hold-down posts that connect the boosters to the launch platform.

The inspections are so detailed in part because the information will go back to more than 35 organizations, directorates and companies that can’t go out and look at the launch pad firsthand with the team. The team itself is made up of engineers from NASA, United Space Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed Martin.


There are a few surprises for the group, but the most consistent shock is that launch pads survive incredibly well despite forces far stronger than most buildings face.

“You have a steel structure a half-mile from the ocean and it’s been there for 40 years and you’re setting a controlled explosion off on it,” Painter said.

For Linder, the best part of the whole inspection is getting back to the office to write the report. The group gathers around a desk and before long some of the snacks and candy that had been tucked inside desks fuels a couple hours of camaraderie.

“I guess it’s the fellowship,” Linderman said.

That feeling is shared by others on the team.

“It’s dirty, it’s hot, it’s smelly and it’s fun,” Stresau said.

Steven Siceloff
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center


For more information visit nasa.gov

Mars Orbiter Shows Angled View of Martian Crater

TUCSON, Ariz. - The high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has returned a dramatic oblique view of the Martian crater that a rover explored for two years.

This image of Victoria Crater in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars was taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at more of a sideways angle than earlier orbital images of this crater. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The new view of Victoria Crater shows layers on steep crater walls, difficult to see from straight overhead, plus wheel tracks left by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between September 2006 and August 2008. The orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera shot it at an angle comparable to looking at landscape from an airplane window. Some of the camera's earlier, less angled images of Victoria Crater aided the rover team in choosing safe routes for Opportunity and contributed to joint scientific studies.

This telescopic view from orbit around Mars catches a Martian dust devil in action in the planet's southern hemisphere. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The new Victoria Crater image is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro20091012a.html and as a sub-image of the full-frame image at: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_013954_1780 .

Another new image from the same camera catches an active dust devil leaving a trail and casting a shadow. These whirlwinds have been a subject of investigation by Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit.

The new dust devil image is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro20091012b.html and as a sub-image of the full-frame image at: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_013545_1110 .

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Lori Stiles 520-626-4402
University of Arizona, Tucson
lstiles@u.arizona.edu

For more information visit nasa.gov

Meteorite Found on Mars Yields Clues About Planet's Past

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is investigating a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet's environmental history.

The rock, dubbed "Block Island," is larger than any other known meteorite on Mars. Scientists calculate it is too massive to have hit the ground without disintegrating unless Mars had a much thicker atmosphere than it has now when the rock fell. An atmosphere slows the descent of meteorites. Additional studies also may provide clues about how weathering has affected the rock since it fell.

Two weeks ago, Opportunity had driven approximately 180 meters (600 feet) past the rock in a Mars region called Meridiani Planum. An image the rover had taken a few days earlier and stored was then transmitted back to Earth. The image showed the rock is approximately 60 centimeters (2 feet) in length, half that in height, and has a bluish tint that distinguishes it from other rocks in the area. The rover team decided to have Opportunity backtrack for a closer look, eventually touching Block Island with its robotic arm.

This view of a rock called "Block Island," the largest meteorite yet found on Mars, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity.

"There's no question that it is an iron-nickel meteorite," said Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. Gellert is the lead scientist for the rover's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, an instrument on the arm used for identifying key elements in an object. "We already investigated several spots that showed elemental variations on the surface. This might tell us if and how the metal was altered since it landed on Mars."

The microscopic imager on the arm revealed a distinctive triangular pattern in Block Island's surface texture, matching a pattern common in iron-nickel meteorites found on Earth.

"Normally this pattern is exposed when the meteorite is cut, polished and etched with acid," said Tim McCoy, a rover team member from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "Sometimes it shows up on the surface of meteorites that have been eroded by windblown sand in deserts, and that appears to be what we see with Block Island."

This iron-nickel meteorite found near Fort Stockton, Texas, in 1952 shows a surface texture similar to some portions of the surface of an iron-nickel meteorite that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity found on Mars in July 2009.

Opportunity found a smaller iron-nickel meteorite, called "Heat Shield Rock," in late 2004. At about a half ton or more, Block Island is roughly 10 times as massive as Heat Shield Rock and several times too big to have landed intact without more braking than today's Martian atmosphere could provide.

"Consideration of existing model results indicates a meteorite this size requires a thicker atmosphere," said rover team member Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Either Mars has hidden reserves of carbon-dioxide ice that can supply large amounts of carbon-dioxide gas into the atmosphere during warm periods of more recent climate cycles, or Block Island fell billions of years ago."

Spectrometer observations have already identified variations in the composition of Block Island at different points on the rock's surface. The differences could result from interaction of the rock with the Martian environment, where the metal becomes more rusted from weathering with longer exposures to water vapor or liquid.

"We have lots of iron-nickel meteorites on Earth. We're using this meteorite as a way to study Mars," said Albert Yen, a rover team member at JPL. "Before we drive away from Block Island, we intend to examine more targets on this rock where the images show variations in color and texture. We're looking to see how extensively the rock surface has been altered, which helps us understand the history of the Martian climate since it fell."

When the investigation of Block Island concludes, the team plans to resume driving Opportunity on a route from Victoria Crater, which the rover explored for two years, toward the much larger Endeavour Crater. Opportunity has covered about one-fifth of the 19-kilometer (12-mile) route plotted for safe travel to Endeavour since the rover left Victoria nearly a year ago.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its microscopic imager to get this view of the surface of a rock called "Block Island" during the 1,963rd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Mars (Aug. 1, 2009).

Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, landed on Mars in January 2004 for missions originally planned to last for three months. Both rovers show signs of aging but are still very able to continue to explore and study Mars.

To see the image and obtain more information about the rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

NASA'S JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rovers Opportunity and Spirit for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

For more information visit nasa.gov

Completing Kibo: STS-127 Marks New Era for Science

For the multinational crew of seven astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour, the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station was a resounding success. Lasting nearly 16 days, the flight was one of the longest of NASA's Space Shuttle Program. The team's main goals -- completing assembly of Japan's Kibo laboratory complex and delivering spare station parts for future use -- called for five spacewalks and intricate robotics work by the shuttle and station crews.

Image above: Smoke and steam infuse with the fiery light from Endeavour's launch. Image credit: NASA/Sandra Joseph-Kevin O'Connell

But the first challenge was getting off the ground. A gaseous hydrogen leak halted two launch countdowns -- and once the leak was repaired, weather problems halted more attempts. Finally, Endeavour and crew enjoyed a picture-perfect launch at 6:03 p.m. EDT on July 15, rocketing away from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida just one day before the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 11, humanity's first visit to the moon.

Commanded by veteran astronaut Mark Polansky, the STS-127 crew also comprised Pilot Doug Hurley, Mission Specialists Dave Wolf, Christopher Cassidy, Julie Payette of the Canadian Space Agency, Tom Marshburn and Tim Kopra. Upon Endeavour's arrival at the station, Kopra replaced the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Koichi Wakata as the Expedition 20 flight engineer.

After a day in orbit spent checking out the shuttle's heat shield, Polansky guided Endeavour to a link-up with the International Space Station at 1:47 p.m. July 17 as the two vehicles glided 220 miles above the north coast of Australia. Once the hatches were opened, Wakata and Kopra swapped seat liners, officially making Kopra a member of the Expedition 20 crew.

The combined crews of Endeavour and station added up to 13 people -- the most humans ever in orbit at the same place at the same time.

With both spacecraft and astronaut teams together in space, it was time to get to work.

The mission's main objective was to install the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility, the final piece of the Kibo laboratory. The Exposed Facility will serve as a permanent "porch" aboard the station, allowing experiments to be exposed to the space environment. On Flight Day 4, spacewalkers Wolf and Kopra spent five-and-a-half hours outside the orbiting outpost, preparing the attach points on both the Kibo hardware already in place and the new component to be installed. The porch then was installed by Polansky and Payette at the controls of Endeavour's robotic arm, and Hurley and Wakata controlling the station's robotic arm. Additionally, Kibo's robotic arm provided a view of the installation.

Image above: With Earth below, astronaut Christopher Cassidy participates in the mission's third spacewalk. Image credit: NASA

Endeavour also brought up the Japanese Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section, a payload carrier that temporarily attached to the Exposed Facility. Three days after the astronauts installed the facility, the carrier was robotically plucked from Endeavour's payload bay and handed off to the station arm, which repositioned it near the Kibo complex. During another spacewalk, Wolf and Cassidy readied the carrier and the facility for attachment. On Flight Day 9, the Kibo robotic arm made its operational debut with Wakata at the controls as he moved three experiments from the carrier to the facility. The carrier was returned to the shuttle's payload bay three days later.

Spacewalkers Marshburn and Cassidy also installed video cameras on the Exposed Facility, which will help provide a view of the H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, scheduled to arrive at the station this fall.

In addition to the astronauts' hard work to complete Kibo, they also needed to install several space station components for future use. As with their Kibo efforts, this process took several days, multiple spacewalks and plenty of robotics work to accomplish.

Image above: The Japanese Experiment Module Kibo laboratory and newly installed Exposed Facility are viewed from inside the station. Image credit: NASA

During the mission's third spacewalk, Wolf and Cassidy began the task of replacing six batteries that power the station's P6 truss in the absence of sunlight. They swapped out two batteries before a potential problem arose with the carbon dioxide scrubber in Cassidy's spacesuit. Although Cassidy was never in danger, mission rules called for an early end to their excursion. The remaining four batteries were replaced by Cassidy and Marshburn two days later.

Other spares transferred to the station for long-term storage were a pump module, space-to-ground antenna and a linear drive unit.

With several days of intense work and accomplishments behind them, the shuttle and station crews said their farewells, and Endeavour pulled away from the station July 28 after 11 days of docked operations.

Before coming home, the crew of Endeavour deployed two pairs of satellites: the Dual RT Astrodynamic GPS Orbital Navigator Satellite, or DRAGONSat, and the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment-2, or ANDE-2. DRAGONSat's two satellites will test the ability of two spacecraft to rendezvous based on data provided by the Global Positioning System, and ANDE-2 will study the atmosphere at an Earth altitude of 200 miles.

Image above: The drogue chute unfurls behind Endeavour on Runway 15 at Kennedy Space Center. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Landing day dawned bright and sunny at Kennedy Space Center. After 248 orbits and more than 6.5 million miles, Endeavour and crew touched down on Runway 15 at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 10:48 a.m., landing right on time at the first opportunity and bringing Wakata home to Earth after 138 days in space.

STS-127 Spacewalks:

First Spacewalk: Wolf and Kopra prepared the Kibo laboratory and the Exposed Facility for installation and deployed a cargo carrier attachment system on the P3 truss that failed to unfurl in March. Spacewalk time: five hours, 32 minutes.

Second Spacewalk: Wolf and Marshburn installed the space-to-ground antenna, pump module and linear drive unit to a stowage platform on the P3 truss. Spacewalk time: six hours, 53 minutes.

Third Spacewalk: Wolf and Cassidy prepared the Exposed Section payloads for transfer to the Exposed Facility and replaced two station batteries before ending the spacewalk early due to a problem with Cassidy's suit. Spacewalk time: five hours, 59 minutes.

Fourth Spacewalk: Cassidy and Marshburn replaced the remaining four station batteries. Spacewalk time: seven hours, 12 minutes.

Fifth Spacewalk: Cassidy and Marshburn installed video cameras on the Exposed Facility and completed other miscellaneous tasks around the station. Spacewalk time: four hours, 54 minutes.

For more information visit nasa.gov

Rocket to Launch Inflatable Spacecraft Shell

Inflatable aircraft are not a new idea. Hot air balloons have been around for more than two centuries and blimps are a common sight over many sports stadiums. But it's hard to imagine an inflatable spacecraft.

Researchers from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., are working to develop a new kind of lightweight inflatable spacecraft outer shell to slow and protect reentry vehicles as they blaze through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.

NASA engineers check out the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) in the lab. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith

They will test a technology demonstrator from a small sounding rocket to be launched at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island, Va. The launch is scheduled for Aug. 17.

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment, or IRVE, looks like a giant mushroom when it's inflated. For the test, the silicon-coated Kevlar aeroshell is vacuum-packed inside a 16-inch (40.6 cm) diameter cylinder, but once it unfurls and is pumped full of nitrogen it is almost 10 feet (3 m) wide.

Engineers say the concept could help land bigger objects on Mars. "We'd like to be able to land more mass on Mars," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE's principal investigator and chief scientist of the Hypersonics Project within NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "To land more mass you have to have more drag. We need to maximize the drag area of the entry system. We want to make it as big as we can, but the limitation has been the launch vehicle diameter."

According to Cheatwood, the idea of inflatable decelerators has been around for 40 years, but there were technical issues, including concerns about whether materials could withstand the heat of re-entry. Since then materials have advanced and because of numerous Mars missions, including rovers, landers and orbiters, there's more understanding of the Martian atmosphere.

That means researchers can now test a subscale model of a compact inflatable heat shield with the help of a small two-stage rocket. The vehicle is a 50-foot Black Brant 9 that will lift IRVE outside the atmosphere to an altitude of about 130 miles (209 km). Engineers want to find out what the re-entry vehicle will do on the way down.

A Black Brant 9 rocket similar to the one that will lift the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) to an altitude of about 130 miles (209 km) above the Earth. Credit: NASA

"The whole flight will be over in less than 20 minutes," said Mary Beth Wusk, IRVE project manager. "We separate from the rocket 90 seconds after launch and we begin inflation about three-and-a-half-minutes after that. Our critical data period after it inflates and re-enters through the atmosphere is only about 30 seconds long."

Cameras and sensors on board will document the inflation and high-speed free fall and send information to researchers on the ground.

After its brief flight IRVE will fall into the Atlantic Ocean about 90 miles down range from Wallops. No efforts will be made to retrieve the experiment or the sounding rocket.

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment is an example of how NASA is using its aeronautics expertise to support the development of future spacecraft. NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington funded the flight experiment as part of its hypersonics research effort.

On the day of the launch the Wallops Flight facility plans to use the Internet to update the countdown status at:

› http://twitter.com/NASA_Wallops


A webcast the event will be featured at:

› http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/events/index.html

For more information visit nasa.gov

The Perseids are Coming

Splat! There goes another bug on the windshield.

Anyone who's ever driven down a country lane has seen it happen. A fast moving car, a cloud of multiplying insects, and a big disgusting mess.

The next time that happens to you, instead of feeling grossed out, try thinking of the experience as an astronomy lesson. Your car is Earth. The bugs are tiny flakes of comet dust. The carnage on your windshield ... it's a meteor shower!

Earth, like a speeding car, races around the Sun sweeping up everything in its path. There are no insects in space, but there are plenty of meteoroids, little flakes of dust from comets and asteroids. They hit Earth's atmosphere and splat! they disintegrate as fiery streaks of light called meteors.

A "side window" Perseid Earthgrazer. Image Credit: S. Kohle & B. Koch (Astron. I., U. Bonn).

This week lots of meteors will appear over Earth's northern hemisphere when our planet plows through a swarm of dust shed by periodic comet Swift-Tuttle. It's the annual Perseid meteor shower, which peaks on August 11th and 12th.

Just as bugs tend to accumulate on the front windshield of a car, Perseids accumulate on the front windshield of Earth.

Earth has a windshield? It's the atmosphere, which protects us from solar wind and comet dust much as a car's windshield protects passengers from wind, rain and bugs. Earth's front windshield is the early morning sky. Earth circles the Sun dawn-side first, scooping up whatever lies on that side of the planet. That's why it's usually best to look for Perseids just before dawn.

A good time to see Perseids this year is before dawn on Wednesday morning, August 12th, when Earth's front windshield is overhead.

Side windows, the ones to the left and right of passengers in cars, are good, too. Zooming down a bug-infested lane, side windows don't intercept many insects, but the ones they do gather are worth examining. Bugs that strike side windows do so at a shallow angle, leaving long and colorful streaks.

This also happens to meteors. When the constellation Perseus (the source of the Perseids) hangs low near the horizon, meteors streaming from Perseus will skim the the top of Earth's atmosphere, much like a bug skimming the side window of an automobile. Astronomers call these meteors "Earthgrazers." They tend to be long and colorful.

Look for Perseid Earthgrazers on Tuesday night, Aug. 11th, between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. local time.

This year, evening Earthgrazers on August 11th could be the best part of the show, because the Moon and its interfering glare will be below the horizon in early evening. Dark skies = good meteor watching. Later, when Earth's "front windshield" rises, the Moon will rise with it, reducing the number of Perseids you'll be able to see before sunrise on August 12th.

Earthgrazers don't come in large numbers. The special geometry required to produce them keeps counts low, but even one or two is enough. A breathtaking Earthgrazer is the sort of meteor you're likely to remember for years.

Best of all, there's no gooey residue.

Dr. Tony Phillips
Science@NASA

For more information visit nasa.gov

Planet Smash-Up Sends Vaporized Rock, Hot Lava Flying

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence of a high-speed collision between two burgeoning planets around a young star.

Astronomers say that two rocky bodies, one as least as big as our moon and the other at least as big as Mercury, slammed into each other within the last few thousand years or so - not long ago by cosmic standards. The impact destroyed the smaller body, vaporizing huge amounts of rock and flinging massive plumes of hot lava into space. An artist's animation of the event is at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzer-20090810.html .

Spitzer's infrared detectors were able to pick up the signatures of the vaporized rock, along with pieces of refrozen lava, called tektites.

"This collision had to be huge and incredibly high-speed for rock to have been vaporized and melted," said Carey M. Lisse of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., lead author of a new paper describing the findings in the Aug. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. "This is a really rare and short-lived event, critical in the formation of Earth-like planets and moons. We're lucky to have witnessed one not long after it happened."

This artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury.

Lisse and his colleagues say the cosmic crash is similar to the one that formed our moon more than 4 billion years ago, when a body the size of Mars rammed into Earth.

"The collision that formed our moon would have been tremendous, enough to melt the surface of Earth," said co-author Geoff Bryden of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Debris from the collision most likely settled into a disk around Earth that eventually coalesced to make the moon. This is about the same scale of impact we're seeing with Spitzer -- we don't know if a moon will form or not, but we know a large rocky body's surface was red hot, warped and melted."

Our solar system's early history is rich with similar tales of destruction. Giant impacts are thought to have stripped Mercury of its outer crust, tipped Uranus on its side and spun Venus backward, to name a few examples. Such violence is a routine aspect of planet building. Rocky planets form and grow in size by colliding and sticking together, merging their cores and shedding some of their surfaces. Though things have settled down in our solar system today, impacts still occur, as was observed last month after a small space object crashed into Jupiter.

Lisse and his team observed a star called HD 172555, which is about 12 million years old and located about 100 light-years away in the far southern constellation Pavo, or the Peacock (for comparison, our solar system is 4.5 billion years old). The astronomers used an instrument on Spitzer, called a spectrograph, to break apart the star's light and look for fingerprints of chemicals, in what is called a spectrum. What they found was very strange. "I had never seen anything like this before," said Lisse. "The spectrum was very unusual."

After careful analysis, the researchers identified lots of amorphous silica, or essentially melted glass. Silica can be found on Earth in obsidian rocks and tektites. Obsidian is black, shiny volcanic glass. Tektites are hardened chunks of lava that are thought to form when meteorites hit Earth.

Large quantities of orbiting silicon monoxide gas were also detected, created when much of the rock was vaporized. In addition, the astronomers found rocky rubble that was probably flung out from the planetary wreck.

The mass of the dust and gas observed suggests the combined mass of the two charging bodies was more than twice that of our moon.

Their speed must have been tremendous as well - the two bodies would have to have been traveling at a velocity relative to each other of at least 10 kilometers per second (about 22,400 miles per hour) before the collision.

Spitzer has witnessed the dusty aftermath of large asteroidal impacts before, but did not find evidence for the same type of violence - melted and vaporized rock sprayed everywhere. Instead, large amounts of dust, gravel, and boulder-sized rubble were observed, indicating the collisions might have been slower-paced. "Almost all large impacts are like stately, slow-moving Titanic-versus-the-iceberg collisions, whereas this one must have been a huge fiery blast, over in the blink of an eye and full of fury," said Lisse.

Other authors include C.H. Chen of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.; M.C. Wyatt of the University of Cambridge, England; A. Morlok of the Open University, London, England; I. Song of The University of Georgia, Athens, Ga.; and P. Sheehan of the University of Rochester, N.Y.

JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph, which made the observations in 2004 before the telescope began its "warm" mission, was built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Its development was led by Jim Houck of Cornell.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer . More information about NASA's planet-finding program is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

Media contact: Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.b.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

For more information visit nasa.gov

'Block Island' Meteorite on Mars, Sol 1961

Composition measurements by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity confirm that this rock on the Martian surface is an iron-nickel meteorite.

The rover's panoramic camera took this image during the 1,961st Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (July 31), after approaching close enough to touch the rock with tools on the rover's robotic arm.

Researchers have informally named the rock "Block Island." With a width of about two-thirds of a meter (2 feet), it is the largest meteorite yet found on Mars. Opportunity found a smaller iron-nickel meteorite, called "Heat Shield Rock" in late 2004.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

Saturn to Pull Celestial Houdini on August 11

Since Saturn's axis is tilted as it orbits the sun, Saturn has seasons, like those of planet Earth -- but each of Saturn's seasons last for over seven years. The Hubble Space Telescope took the above sequence of images about a year apart. Starting on the left in 1996 and ending on the right in 2000. Image credit: NASA/Hubble

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

Shadows in the F ring

Cassini spies a shadow cast by a vertically extended structure or object in the F ring in this image taken as Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox.

The structure can be seen as a bulge near the bright core of the ring on the right of the image. Imaging scientists are working to understand the origin of structures such as this one, but they think this image shows the shadow of what appears to be a vertically extended object in the core of the F ring.

The second (bottom) version of the image has been brightened to enhance the visibility of the ring and shadow. Background stars appear elongated in the image because of the camera's exposure time.

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

Shadow Reaches the A Ring

A vertically extended structure or object in Saturn's F ring casts a shadow long enough to reach the A ring in this Cassini image taken just days before planet's August 2009 equinox.

The structure can be seen as a bulge within the bright core of the F ring on the left of the image. The structure rises far enough above the ring plane for the shadow to be cast across the Roche Division and onto the A ring. The shadow is barely visible stretching across the top right quadrant of the image. The shadow appears very faint here because this view looks toward the unlit side of the rings.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

A Small Find Near Equinox

The Cassini spacecraft captured this image of a small object in the outer portion of Saturn's B ring casting a shadow on the rings as Saturn approaches its August 2009 equinox.

This new moonlet, situated about 300 miles (480 kilometers), inward from the outer edge of the B ring, was found by detection of its shadow which stretches 25 miles, or 41 kilometers, across the rings. The shadow length implies the moonlet is protruding about 660 feet, or 200 meters, above the ring plane. If the moonlet is orbiting in the same plane as the ring material surrounding it, which is likely, it must be about 1,300 feet, or 400 meters, across.

This object is not attended by a propeller feature, unlike the band of moonlets discovered in Saturn's A ring earlier by Cassini. The A ring moonlets, which have not been directly imaged, were found because of the propeller-like narrow gaps on either side of them that they create as they orbit within the rings. The lack of a propeller feature surrounding the new moonlet is likely because the B ring is dense, and the ring material in a dense ring would be expected to fill in any gaps around the moonlet more quickly than in a less dense region like the mid-A ring. Also, it may simply be harder in the first place for a moonlet to create propeller-like gaps in a dense ring.

Straw-like patterns of clumping ring material are also visible along the edge of the outer B ring near the right of this image.

This image and others like it are only possible around the time of Saturn's equinox which occurs every half-Saturn-year (equivalent to about 15 Earth years). The illumination geometry that accompanies equinox lowers the sun's angle to the ring plane and causes out-of-plane structures to cast long shadows across the rings.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 42 degrees below the ring plane. Background stars are visible on the right of the image. They appear elongated by the camera's exposure time.

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 26, 2009. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 296,000 kilometers (184,000 miles) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 120 degrees. Image scale is 1 kilometer (4,680 feet) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

NASA Goes Inside a Volcano, Monitors Activity

A sensor like this is being placed inside and around the mouth of Mount St. Helens. One day it may be used to respond rapidly to an impending eruption.

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

"Robots on the Road" Demonstrates Mars Rovers’ Work is Children’s Play

An artist's concept of the Mars rover Spirit Image credit: NASA

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Hometown Heroes 2009: Grunsfeld Takes the Windy City by Storm

NASA astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld talks with broadcaster Ed Farmer at the White Sox game during the 2009 Hometown Heroes campaign in Chicago. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld presents a photo of Chicago from space to management at the White Sox game during the 2009 Hometown Heroes campaign in Chicago. Photo Credit: NASA

NASA astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld signs autographs at the White Sox game during the 2009 Hometown Heroes campaign in Chicago. Photo Credit: NASA

For more information and images visit nasa.gov

A Moon Rock on the International Space Station

ISS020-E-14200 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans’ first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation’s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

ISS020-E-007383 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans’ first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth and a section of a station solar panel can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation’s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

ISS020-E-014193 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans’ first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation’s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

ISS020-E-14196 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans’ first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown as it floats aboard the International Space Station. Part of Earth can be seen through the window. The 3.6 billion year-old lunar sample was flown to the station aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-119 in April 2009 in honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing. The rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation’s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

JSC2009-E-145988 (FOR RELEASE 21 JULY 2009) --- --- A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans’ first landing on the moon in July 1969, is shown on Earth prior to being placed in April 2009 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery for transporting it to the International Space Station. In honor of the July 2009 40th anniversary of the historic first moon landing, the rock, lunar sample 10072, was flown to the station to serve as a symbol of the nation’s resolve to continue the exploration of space. It will be returned on shuttle mission STS-128 to be publicly displayed.

For more information visit nasa.gov

Summer Heat

A white-hot flame surrounded by red hot exhaust shoots from a recent test of the J-2X engine 'workhorse' gas generator at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. The workhorse gas generator simulates the flow path inside the actual J-2X gas generator that powers the engine's turbo machinery. Testing to ensure stable combustion and uniform gas temperature in this component translates into a safer, more durable J-2X engine, which will power the second stage of the new Ares I rocket.

For more information about Ares, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ares

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC

Globally Threatened Indian Fauna:

India has a rich and varied heritage of biodiversity, encompassing a wide spectrum of habitats from tropical rainforests in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to alpine vegetation and dry alpine scrub high in the Himalayas and from temperate forests to coastal wetlands. Between the two extremes, the country has semi-evergreen rain forests, deciduous monsoon forests, thorn forests, and subtropical pine forests in the lower montane zone and temperate montane forests. Since the Indian sub-continent lies at the confluence of African, European and Indo-Malayan realms the biota, therefore, includes African, European, and Eurasian and Mediterranean elements.

India contributes significantly to this latitudinal biodiversity trend. India is a one of the twelve mega biodiversity countries of the world. With a mere 2.4% of the world's area, India 18 accounts for 7.25 % of the total global fauna (12, 21,315) ( with a count of 89,451 species (Alfred, 1998).

The present paper deals with the conservation status of globally threatened Indian fauna that has been red listed by IUCN. The tables providede also incorporates the red listed species that have been included in the various schedules of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, appendices of the Conventions on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and fauna (CITES) and appendices of Convention of Migratory Species (CMS).

India contains 648 species of animals listed as “Globally Threatened” by IUCN (2004) which is approximately 8.91%; of the world's total number of threatened faunal species (7266 species} The 648 Globally Threatened Indian species includes 213 Species of Mammals,149 Birds, 33 Reptiles, 148 Amphibians, 75 Pisces and 30 Invertebrate species. Of the 648 Threatened Indian Species 183 species are endemic It significantly makes 29.01% of the threatened Indian fauna, which is a very high ratio and the threats to the endemic species are a cause of concern. While there are tremendous efforts to conserve the threatened fauna world over there has been remarkable decline in the population trends as evident from the Table 6. Out of the 648 threatened Indian species we have the trends available for 447 species only, of which 218 species are showing downward trend while 217 species are indeterminate. Only eleven species have the stable population while, to speak towards upward trend we have only one species of mammals namely, Megaptera novaeangliae- a Bunch which is under vulnerable category.

Marine Ecotoxicology

Marine ecotoxicology is the study of the harmful effects of chemical pollutants on marine organisms and ecosystems such as corals, fish, oysters, mangroves and microalgae.

Significant proportions of pollutants from the Great Barrier Reef’s catchment reach the in-shore waters of the GBR during the intense flooding events that dominate north Queensland rainfall and river flows. Nitrogen levels in flood plumes are between 10 to 100 times higher than normal marine concentrations.

Coastal waters are also at risk from pollution derived from normal ship operations (such as waste disposal, vessel sewage, introduction of marine pests through ballast water and hull fouling, toxic compounds released from anti-fouling paints) and pollution caused by shipping accidents (such as vessel groundings and oil spills).

Apart from directly killing marine organisms, pollutants have the potential to cause sub-lethal effects such as disrupting symbioses and interfering with chemical cues responsible for key biological processes, including reproduction and recruitment.

Systematics

Biological systematics is considered to be the study of the diversity of life on the planet earth, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Systematics, is used to understand the evolutionary history of life on earth.

Systematics is often used synonymously with "taxonomy" and scientific classification." However, taxonomy is the describing, identifying, classifying, and naming of organisms. Classification is focused on categorizing organisms within specific groups that show their relationships to other organisms.

Systematics uses taxonomy as a means to understand organisms, as nothing about an organism's relationships with other living things can be understood without it first being properly studied and described in sufficient detail to identify and classify it correctly. Scientific classifications are aids in recording and reporting information to other scientists and to laymen.

A scientist who specializes in systematics is called a systematist. A systematist must be able to use existing classification systems to insure proper identification and classification of species.

William sisters in final

WIMBLEDON— Venus and Serena Williams won in distinct fashion.
Two time winner Serena saved a match point and overcame Elena Dementieva 6-7 (4), 7-5, 8-6 in 2 hours, 49 minutes this is the longest women's semifinal at Wimbledon in last 40 years. Five time winner Venus, meanwhile, took only 51 minutes to knock down Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-0 and reach her eighth Wimbledon final.

"Oh my God, this is my eighth final, and it's a dream come to true to be here again and have the opportunity to hold the plate up," Venus said.The sisters, who hold 17 Grand Slam titles between them, will face each other Saturday on the Fourth of July in the finals.If Venus wins the title she will become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1991-93 to win Wimbledon three years in a row.

"The more we play, the better it gets," Serena said. "When we play our match on Saturday, you know, it's for everything. This is what we dreamed of when we were growing up in Compton (California) 20-something years ago. This is what we worked for, and this is what we want. Like I wanted her to win today and she wanted me to win today. It's all come down to this."

Serena's father Richard Williams, who watched the match on Thursday, was the happiest man.