If all goes as planned, the commercial spaceflight company SpaceX will launch its Dragon capsule into low-Earth orbit and dock with the International Space Station on Saturday. Miles O’Brien fills us in on the details of the mission, the engineering challenges and the other spaceflight companies vying for a chance at delivering cargo and people to low-Earth orbit.

Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth’s, coming within five million miles (about eight million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth’s atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

The new results come from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE. The project sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the entire population as a whole. Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found.

While previous estimates of PHAs predicted similar numbers, they were rough approximations. NEOWISE has generated a more credible estimate of the objects’ total numbers and sizes.

“The NEOWISE analysis shows us we’ve made a good start at finding those objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth,” said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “But we’ve many more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future.”

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The new analysis also suggests that about twice as many PHAs as previously thought are likely to reside in “lower-inclination” orbits, which are more aligned with the plane of Earth’s orbit. In addition, these lower-inclination objects appear to be somewhat brighter and smaller than the other near-Earth asteroids that spend more time far away from Earth. A possible explanation is that many of the PHAs may have originated from a collision between two asteroids in the main belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. A larger body with a low-inclination orbit may have broken up in the main belt, causing some of the fragments to drift into orbits closer to Earth and eventually become PHAs.

Asteroids with lower-inclination orbits would be more likely to encounter Earth and would be easier to reach. The results therefore suggest more near-Earth objects might be available for future robotic or human missions.

“NASA’s NEOWISE project, which wasn’t originally planned as part of WISE, has turned out to be a huge bonus,” said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Everything we can learn about these objects helps us understand their origins and fate. Our team was surprised to find the overabundance of low-inclination PHAs. Because they will tend to make more close approaches to Earth, these targets can provide the best opportunities for the next generation of human and robotic exploration.”

The discovery that many PHAs tend to be bright says something about their composition; they are more likely to be either stony, like granite, or metallic. This type of information is important in assessing the space rocks’ potential hazards to Earth. The composition of the bodies would affect how quickly they might burn up in our atmosphere if an encounter were to take place.

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The WISE spacecraft scanned the sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in early 2011. It catalogued hundreds of millions of objects, including super-luminous galaxies, stellar nurseries and closer-to-home asteroids. The NEOWISE project snapped images of about 600 near-Earth asteroids, about 135 of which were new discoveries. Because the telescope detected the infrared light, or heat, of asteroids, it was able to pick up both light and dark objects, resulting in a more representative look at the entire population. The infrared data allowed astronomers to make good measurements of the asteroids’ diameters and, when combined with visible light observations, how much sunlight they reflect.

JPL manages, and operates the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA’s Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

The SCIFLI (Scientifically Calibrated In Flight Imagery) team, based at NASA Langley, is preparing to capture visual and thermal snapshots of the SpaceX launch as the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon capsule climb through the atmosphere on their way to the ISS. The launch is scheduled for Saturday, May 19.

The team will have sophisticated optical systems stationed on the ground in northern Florida and for the first time ever on board a ship, the Freedom Star. The Freedom Star and its sister ship, Liberty Star, originally built to recover space shuttle solid rocket boosters, will also monitor the spacecraft during the mission using NASA diagnostic radar systems. Both ships will be off the coast of the northeastern United States. They are normally home ported at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“We’re looking at getting very high spatial resolution, high definition quality visual imaging during the launch as well as high spatial resolution thermal imaging from an infrared camera,” said Tom Horvath, SCIFLI principal investigator at NASA Langley.

NASA contracted with Celestial Computing Incorporated in Boston, Mass., to equip the Freedom Star with a special gyro-stabilized tracking mount and hardware – turning the ship into a floating high-tech radar, camera and long-range telescope platform.

A NASA Langley team will capture long range images of the SpaceX launch with the help of a sophisticated camera and telescope system that's on a gyro-stablized tracking mount. - Image Credit: NASA

“This ship-based imaging capability is unique,” said Horvath. “NASA does not possess a shipboard gyro-stabilized tracker with the large aperture/long focal length optics coupled to state-of-the-art detectors.”

NASA will train the two imaging systems at the spacecraft to help monitor its performance and capture key events during ascent, including release of the Dragon capsule and solar panel deployments. This will be the first use of a ship-based high definition visual and infrared imaging system to support Commercial Orbital Transportation System (COTS) project flights. The COTS project is part of the Commercial Crew and Cargo Program, led out of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

This may be the first time NASA Langley has used a ship to try to capture images of a spacecraft in flight, but it’s not the first time the SCIFLI team has trained its sites on fast moving objects. The SCIFLI team builds upon the success of what used to be the Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) team, which has had a history of capturing challenging thermal images at speeds as high as Mach 18. The project successfully recorded the space shuttle heat signature during re-entry on seven different Shuttle missions, using ground and airborne systems.

For more information about NASA Langley, please go to: http://www.nasa.gov/langley

“Ball Aerospace recognizes the mission enabling aspect of solar electric propulsion and our customer needs for SEP solutions,” said Cary Ludtke, vice president of Ball’s Civil and Operational Space business unit. “We believe we’re the right-sized company with the right capabilities to take this space technology to the next level.”

The current study focused on developing concepts that will be using technology at NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 or greater. Ball’s mission concept supports NASA’s goal to elevate SEP technologies in order to create more efficient and powerful solar-powered flight systems. Ball Aerospace worked with several companies to create an implementable solar electronic technology demonstration mission for NASA including: ATK Space Systems, Busek Co. Inc., Deployable Space Systems, Gray Research Inc., and the Southwest Research Institute.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications. For more information visit www.ballaerospace.com.

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Interview with Ben Brockert, part 1 – The STIG Rocket

On May 2^nd, R2 began serving the ISS crew in its mission to perform tasks which are too dangerous or mundane for ISS astronauts to perform. The semi-autonomous robot’s first task is to monitor air velocity from station vents. This is perhaps a lowly beginning for space robots, but a necessary step for the currently legless anthropomorphic creation.

R2 is the product of a successful development partnership between automotive giant GM and space exploration behemoth NASA. In addition to flying the first humanoid robot to space, more than 40 patents and patent applications have blossomed from the R2 development program. Like many other private company/government agency relationships, the partnership between GM and NASA was heavily influenced by federal laws that govern the agency involved. GM and NASA entered into a Space Act Agreement (SAA). The structure of the SAA was chosen in part to ensure that GM could protect and retain an interest in the intellectual property they developed while working with NASA on next-generation robots.

For those of you unfamiliar with the R2, the robot was developed at Johnson Space Center in the Dexterous Robotic Laboratory. A principal goal of the project is developing humanoid robots which can autonomously or semi-autonomously operate alongside astronauts.

A humanoid form factor was chosen so that the robots can use the same tools as their flesh and blood counterparts. This means that NASA only has to ship one set of tools to the ISS, instead of a human set and a set designed for robotic use. Currently, R2 is operating on the ISS. R2 will initially perform simple tasks like monitoring life support system airflow, freeing human astronauts to carry out more challenging tasks.

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R2 is equipped with stereoscopic cameras and the ability to be remotely controlled by astronauts on the ISS or from a ground station. This teleoperation has a haptic feedback component, enabling the human operator to “feel” the forces encountered by the robot during operation. Because R2 has a body, including hands, designed to mimic the abilities of a human, teleoperators may one day be able to perform EVAs using R2’s successors, or to perform remote surgeries on sick astronauts. Currently, R2 is not space rated. R2’s electronics would be fried by the radiation and extreme temperature shifts outside the ISS.

Robonaut 2 was jointly developed by NASA and General Motors. The General and NASA began their relationship in 2007 when the two groups signed a space act agreement (SAA). Over the next four years, a pair of R2 robots were developed and constructed under a Space Act Agreement. R2b actually ended up on the ISS, while R2a has been outfitted with a four-wheeled base, enhancing its mobility.

NASA is a “title taking” organization which means that under many circumstances, intellectual property rights to technologies developed by large companies under NASA contracts like SAAs must be transferred to NASA. The Bayh-Dole Actinsulates small companies working with NASA from this title taking and, depending on the circumstance, SAAs can be structured to avoid it too.

The SAA between NASA and GM was structured in this manner. The NASA/GM SAA is a reimbursable SAA. That is, NASA and GM are working together on the project, but NASA isn’t paying anything out of pocket for development. GM actually pays NASA for the use of facilities. This unfunded SAA gives GM the right to hold the patents on all the technologies they develop for Robonaut 2.

To date, some 40 patents or patent applications have been filed on technologies developed for the Robonaut program, including teleoperation technologies and human grasp assist devices. GM hopes to implement many of the technologies developed under this program in its factories so that human and robot workers can produce cars more efficiently.

In the future, R2 may be equipped with legs adapted for locomotion in zero gravity. R2 may also receive upgrades enabling it to perform EVAs while attached to the end of the ISS’s robotic arm.

Andrew Rush is a patent agent at PCT Law Group. He publishes the blog IPinSpace, where the vastness of space, law, and intellectual property meet.

I’ve spent the last few days reading the Omni Magazines from 1978 and 1979. All of them in fact. I’m struck by something: we’re still talking about most of these same ideas as things for the future…

In those magazines, there are spaceships in your garage. Critisisms of NASA’s inability to attract a younger crowd. Ray Kurzwell is talking Singularity before he called it that. You know, we’ll live forever if we can just live long enough.  Moon mining is just a few years away. In 1978.

As someone who was pre grade school during those two years, I’m a little tired of hearing the same story being told over and over. “Our project will start in just two to three years” they always seem to be saying. We’ll get the same results if we keep doing the same thing, but that’s not really what we all want is it? Don’t we want something bigger?

It’s pretty obvious these days that the hey day of the American Space program is way behind us. No amount of pleading, lobbying, or rhetoric is likely to change this. The rest of the world doesn’t seem poised for much better either. Sorry folks, but that’s where we are.

So what’s a wanna be space explorer to do?

One solution is to explore space with a small team on a small budget. Thanks to the drastic drop in electronics prices and a concerted effort to make multiple cheap launch solutions available to anyone with a few hundred thousand dollars, it is easier to launch your own space mission today than it has ever been.

Got 300 dollars? (that’s not a typo). You can get started for just 300 bucks. My local HAM radio club even went in on one of these. At 100 members, that’s 3 bucks each to have something in space. If you can afford an overpriced coffee, you can get something into space.

Just think about that for a second.

I know it’s a small mission to send a postage sized circuit into space that sends out a very short message, but it IS a mission to space for a few days. Successful missions on a small budget have several upsides.

First, you’re doing real exploration. YOU are doing it.

Second, doing meaningful research on a small budget helps potential investors (and don’t rule out the government here) get comfortable with easing into an industry long thought too expensive and much too risky to take seriously in the past. Just ask Dave Masten what small teams can do with relatively small amounts of money. Big, big things.

There have been hundreds of “amateur” missions over the years. From communications satellites to scientific research, people all over the world are building exploration systems.

So where is one to start?

Try
   • AMSAT
   • nasa challenges
   • Join a Google Lunar X PRIZE Team
   • Find a local hackerspace
   • Find a participatory exploration project to join

Even better, you can create your own project.  Launch a balloon, build a rover, create a high speed wireless network, go get your HAM license.  DO SOMETHING other than watch other people tell you about what they will be exploring “in just a few years”.

Your time is right now.

What are you waiting for? If you want to be a real life Captain Kirk, you’re going to have to go out there and make it happen yourself.

And don’t forget to tell us about your awesome project!

Michael is the founder of Evadot.com and as such can often be found cavorting with penguins or eating herring. Michael can be reached at mike@evadot.com and at michaeldoornbos.com and on twitter as @mrdoornbos

“About two months ago, we were at an event called the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, where together with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) we gave away a suborbital flight,” said XCOR Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nelson. “We had a winner, and we had a backup. Unfortunately our main winner was unable to accept the prize. Our backup winner, Jennifer Brisco, is now the official recipient of the suborbital flight.”

Jennifer, who hails from the San Francisco Bay Area was flown in to the Spacecraft Technology Expo in Los Angeles to receive the prize. She did not know that she had been selected until presented with the award at the Expo.

“It’s been my lifetime goal to take a suborbital flight,” said Jennifer. “This is an absolute dream…I am in shock right now, I am speechless.”

Jennifer poses with her giant ticket and members of XCOR’s team. – Image Credit: XCOR/Mike Massee CLICK TO ENLARGE

Jennifer, who is a space enthusiast, will be eligible to fly on the Lynx mark I as a suborbital researcher after passing a medical exam and completing a three day training program that includes altitude and G-force exposure.

“XCOR continues to bring down the costs and barriers associated with commercial human spaceflight,” remarked Andrew. “Reusable Launch Vehicles such as Lynx will usher in a whole new era of accessibility to space by offering routine, affordable and safe trips outside the atmosphere. We look forward to being on the vanguard of this revolution in affordable access to the cosmos.”

About XCOR Aerospace

XCOR Aerospace is a California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies like rocket piston pumps that enable full reusability. XCOR is working with aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major propulsion systems, and concurrently building the Lynx, a piloted, two-seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered vehicle that takes off and lands horizontally. The Lynx-family of vehicles serves three primary missions depending on their specific type including: research & scientific missions, private spaceflight, and micro satellite launch (only on the Lynx Mark III). The Lynx production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be robust, multi-mission (research / scientific or private spaceflight) commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to four times per day and are being offered globally on a wet lease basis. Find out more at http://www.xcor.com .

The accompanying video was recorded during Sir Elton’s Million Dollar Piano Show in Las Vegas, on 17 April, 40 years to the day after his single Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long Long Time) was released around the world.

Sir Elton said, “When I was a boy Dan Dare was a comic book hero, and space travel just a romantic idea, not a reality. I was 14 years old when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space; my songwriting partner Bernie Taupin was just 11. Bernie and I did not meet until 1967, and two years after we met, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on to the moon.

“Our generation was smitten with the glory and excitement of space travel. ‘Rocket Man’ – and indeed ‘Dan Dare’ on the Rock of the Westies album – came from those boyhood dreams of travelling beyond the stars and looking back on Earth.

“Not long after the Rocket Man single was released, my band and I were invited to the NASA headquarters in Texas and shown around by Al Worden, Apollo 15 command module pilot. It was thrilling to find that real astronauts liked our song, Rocket Man, which was about an imaginary astronaut.

“Now, 40 years later, it’s amazing to hear from the astronauts at the European Space Agency that they like the song and that it has been on the playlist on the International Space Station. I send my best wishes to ESA and all the crew, and my thanks for keeping those boyhood dreams alive.”

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During long stays on the ISS, many astronauts take music with them for listening in off-duty hours. For his six-month mission, ESA’s André Kuipers included Rocket Man in his playlist.

“This song has been an inspiration to many people who are interested in space, and especially those who wanted to become astronauts, including myself. It is certainly one of the most played songs here on the ISS, and we know it will accompany more astronauts into space in the future,” said André.

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Composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Rocket Man has had a special connection with generations of astronauts and many others in the space industry ever since, as well as inspiring and entertaining millions of people around the world.

ESA astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, with three Space Shuttle missions under his belt, said, “I took CDs from Elton John into space three times, and for sure Rocket Man was one of the songs I’ve listened to each time with great feeling.”

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The first European commander of the ISS, Frank De Winne, said: “There is nothing more beautiful than to see our planet from space. There are no boundaries, no skin colours, no political sides, just one planet with one common future. As Rocket Men and Women, it is our duty to testify about it and to strive for a better world for all. I AM a rocket man! Thank you, Elton John, for your great music.”

Rocket Man appeared on Elton John’s album Honky Château, released also 40 years ago next week, on 19 May 1972.

The mission, launched in October 2011, is the result of a partnership between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense. All five of the satellite’s instruments now have been activated for science data collection.

The Suomi NPP satellite gets a complete view of our planet every day. This image uses 20 orbital ‘swaths’ from November 24, 2011, and is the first complete global image from the VIIRS instrument. - Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory -- CLICK TO ENLARGE

“By providing cutting-edge measurements of important Earth system processes, the Suomi NPP mission will increase researchers’ knowledge of our home planet, and provide direct societal benefit through more accurate predictions,” said Michael Freilich, director, Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This satellite mission, which could only have come to fruition through a close interagency partnership, is multifaceted and its data will be used by a multitude of stakeholders in the U.S. and worldwide.”

With the completion of commissioning activities, operation of the Suomi NPP has now been turned over to a Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) team. NOAA’s JPSS Program provided three of the five instruments and the ground segment for Suomi NPP. A government team from the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md., will operate the satellite.

Images from Suomi NPP's VIIRS instrument were stitched together to create this high-quality image of the Earth in January 2012. - Image Credit: NASA/NOAA

“NOAA is thrilled with the performance of Suomi NPP,” said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service in Silver Spring, Md. “NOAA will be using the advanced data NPP provides to improve life-saving weather forecasts and track volcanic eruptions, and to improve our understanding of long-term weather and climate patterns. Suomi NPP is an important mission for the nation.”

The Suomi NPP mission is a bridge between NOAA and NASA legacy Earth observing missions and NOAA’s next-generation JPSS. Suomi NPP flies for the first time the groundbreaking new Earth observing instruments that JPSS will use operationally. The first satellite in the JPSS series, JPSS-1, is targeted for launch in 2016.

NASA scientists have already begun creating consistent, multi-decade Earth science data sets by combining the new NPP observations with measurements from many of the legacy NASA and NOAA missions. These long-term observations are critical to improving our understanding of the Earth system and quantifying any changes.

“With the successful completion of commissioning, Suomi NPP is now ready to provide the world with remarkable Earth observations,” said Ken Schwer, NPP project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Goddard managed the Suomi NPP mission for the Science Mission Directorate’s Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about the Suomi NPP mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/npp
Suomi NPP data will be available at: http://www.class.noaa.gov
For more information about the JPSS program, visit: http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/jpss/