October 15 News Items

Asteroid is 'Practice Case' for Potential Hazards (Source: MIT)
In research that could aid decisions about future asteroids on a collision course with Earth, MIT scientists have for the first time determined the composition of a near-Earth asteroid that has a very slight possibility of someday hitting our planet. That information could be useful in planning any future space mission to explore the asteroid, called Apophis. And if the time ever were to come when this object or another turned out to be on its way toward an impact on Earth, knowing what it's made of could be one important factor in deciding what to do about it.

Don't Wreck the Mars Program (Source: Scientific American)
In the mid-1990s the U.S. embarked on a new strategy for exploring the Red Planet. In response to the 1993 failure of the Mars Observer mission—a billion-dollar, decade-in-the-making probe that mysteriously lost contact with ground controllers just before it was scheduled to go into orbit around Mars—NASA decided to shift to smaller, less expensive spacecraft and create a sustained exploration campaign by sending one or two probes to Mars at every launch opportunity. The new strategy spread out the risk and ensured that the engineering experience and scientific data acquired by one mission could be rapidly used by the next. The approach has proved a brilliant success, putting three NASA spacecraft into orbit around Mars and three rovers on the planet’s surface. The Phoenix Mars Lander is expected to reach the Red Planet next May, and NASA plans to launch the Mars Science Lab in 2009.

Subsequent missions are in jeopardy, however. NASA warned in July that at least one of the future Mars probes may have to be scrapped to free up funding for a much costlier mission, tentatively scheduled for the 2018–2020 period, that would collect samples of Martian rock and bring them to Earth. Moreover, highly placed scientists and program leaders report that the new plan may actually require the sacrifice of all other Mars spacecraft after 2009. Putting aside the question of whether the redirected funds would actually be devoted to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, such a reorganization would be a very bad idea. A one-shot mission to bring Martian rocks to Earth for laboratory analysis is not really a good way to address the central question of Mars science. The Red Planet is a critical test bed for the hypothesis that life is likely to arise wherever the appropriate physical conditions—notably, the presence of liquid water—prevail on a planet for a sufficiently long time. Scientists now know that Mars probably had standing bodies of water on its surface between three billion and four billion years ago, when there was already plentiful microbial life on Earth.

Because asteroid and comet impacts facilitate the transfer of rocks between Mars and Earth, the discovery of microfossils on the Martian surface would not in itself prove that life arose independently on Mars. To settle the question, researchers would need to find living organisms on the planet and examine their biochemistry. These organisms, if they exist, are most likely to be found in groundwater. Thus, the most important goal of the exploration program is to identify sites on Mars where groundwater is within practical drilling distance of the surface. This task can best be done not with an MSR mission but with a comprehensive scouting program involving orbiters, rovers, drillers and robotic aircraft with ground-penetrating radar.

Students Help Astronauts to Breathe Easier on the Moon (Source: Challenger Center)
In the future, astronauts will use plants to provide food, oxygen, clean water and waste recycling while living on the Moon. Join the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and NASA’s K-12 Engineering Design Challenge and design a mini-greenhouse for use by future astronauts living and working on the moon. Challenger Center is pleased to announce a series of live interactive chats with NASA expert space farmers on Oct. 16th, 23rd, and 30th at 2:00 (ET) giving students and teachers the opportunity to discuss their ideas for growing plants on a future lunar base. Dr. Gary Stutte, John Gruener and Dr. Raymond Wheeler will answer questions such as, When will we return to the Moon? How will the astronauts live and work in reduced gravity? What are the benefits of growing plants on the Moon? The web casts are free and open to the public. To register for the webcasts, and learn more about Challenger Center for Space Science Education’s network of 50 Challenger Learning Centers across the country, visit http://www.challenger.org.

NASA 50th Anniversary Essay Contest for Students (Source: NASA)
The NASA 50th Anniversary Essay Competition for middle and junior high school students is now accepting entries. The competition consists of two separate topics, each with a limit of 500 words. The first topic challenges students to describe how they benefit in their everyday lives from space technologies built by NASA over the last 50 years. The second topic requires students to imagine how their everyday lives will have changed because of NASA space technology in the next 50 years. Students may submit two separate essays, each responding to a separate topic. Participants must be U.S. students in grades 5-9 and under the age of 15. An optional notice of intent is due on Dec. 7, 2007. Final entries are due on or before Jan. 7, 2008. For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/5-8/features/F_Essay_Competition.html.

NASA Undergraduate Student Research Program Spring 2008 Internship Session (Source: NASA)
NASA's Undergraduate Student Research Program is currently accepting applications for 15-week spring 2008 internships. These internships offer students the opportunity to work alongside NASA scientists and engineers at NASA's centers, laboratories and test facilities. Applicants must be U.S. college sophomores, juniors or seniors with majors or course work concentration in engineering, mathematics, computer science, or physical or life sciences. Applicants must be U.S. citizens. The application deadline for the spring 2008 session is Oct. 22, 2007. For more information, visit: http://education.nasa.gov/usrp.

Europe Set for Major Space Campaign (Source: BBC)
Europe is on the cusp of a renaissance in space, with its first permanently tended orbital laboratory, a cargo transporter and other gear about to make their debuts. After more than a decade of preparation, 45 tons of European hardware is heading into space over the next four months, including the crown jewel of European space efforts, the Columbus laboratory, which is to become part of the International Space Station (ISS). Europe's direct participation in the station has taken much longer than expected and the costs have been dear.

Classified Satellite Failure Led To Latest SBIRS Delay (Source: Aviation Week)
The loss of a classified satellite after only 7 seconds on orbit prompted the review of software and processors that has caused the most recent delay and a potential $1 billion overrun in Lockheed Martin's Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS). The classified satellite went into a "safe hold," mode, which is initiated when a major anomaly disrupts its operation, and the failure of the safe-hold software made it impossible for ground-control to recover the spacecraft. An official refers to it as a useless "ice cube." Industry officials say Lockheed Martin designed the safe-hold software and architecture for both the failed satellite and SBIRS. This classified spacecraft has some similar architectural qualities to that of the upcoming SBIRS geosynchronous spacecraft, which is what triggered a review of its processors and architecture this summer.

Editorial: Don't Take the Risk (Source: Florida Today)
Human spaceflight involves great risk. The question for NASA is how to carefully manage that risk so the thin line that makes the difference between life and death for astronauts is not crossed. Agency managers will confront the issue again Tuesday, when they gather at Kennedy Space Center to review shuttle Discovery before its planned Oct. 23 liftoff to the International Space Station. What they should do is clear: Heed the warnings of an independent safety panel and replace panels in the ship's wings that contain tiny cracks that could fail and trigger a repeat of the shuttle Columbia disaster.