NASA Leaders Receive Awards From Women in Aerospace

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver speaks after being given the Women in Aerospace's Outstanding Member Award at the organization's annual awards ceremony and banquet held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Arlington, VA
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA's Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate Dr. Edward J. Weiler presents the Women in Aerospace's Lifetime Achievement Award to retired NASA chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman at the organization's annual awards ceremony and banquet.
Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
› View Larger

Four current NASA leaders and one retiree were recognized for their work by Women in Aerospace at the organization's annual awards ceremony and banquet on Tuesday, Oct. 26. The event celebrates women's professional excellence in aerospace and honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the aerospace community.

NASA leaders who were honored at the 2010 awards are: Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, Director of NASA's Langley Research Center Lesa Roe, Program Planning Specialist Beth Beck, Aerospace Engineer Jill Lynette Hanna Prince and Nancy Grace Roman, who retired from NASA in 1979 as chief astronomer.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden presented Women in Aerospace's Outstanding Member Award to Garver, noting her ongoing leadership and participation in the organization and her passion and dedication to opening the high frontier of space to the everyday person.

Bolden said, "On behalf of NASA, I want to recognize all of our honorees for the breadth of their accomplishment and the passion they bring to the agency. Their achievements are truly enlarging our field and amazing the world."

Prince, an aerospace engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., received the Achievement Award for her work in the development of autonomous aerobraking, used on missions such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and her contributions to planetary mission atmospheric flight.

Recognized for her dedication and innovative contributions to building public awareness for aerospace, Beck received the Aerospace Awareness Award. She is an outreach program manager in the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Roe was a co-recipient of the Leadership Award for her dedication to inspiring current and future generations of women and her work to deliver innovative solutions to meet the nation's aerospace and atmospheric science challenges. The co-recipient of the Leadership Award was Mina V. Samii, vice president of Computer Sciences Corporation in Lanham, Md.

A highlight of the evening was when NASA's Ed Weiler, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, presented Women in Aerospace's Lifetime Achievement Award to Nancy Grace Roman, who was NASA's chief astronomer before her retirement. Weiler reviewed Roman's esteemed career at NASA and her trailblazing role in astronomy and government leadership, noting that her efforts were instrumental in making the Hubble Space Telescope a reality.

In addition to the NASA recipients, Alison Flatau, associate dean and professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, received the Aerospace Educator Award, and Donna K. Collins, director, Program Management, at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Ft. Worth, Texas, received the International Achievement Award.

The evening also included the awarding of the first WIA scholarship, funded by the WIA Foundation, and given to women pursuing undergraduate technical degrees to encourage them to enter careers in the aerospace field. Whitney Lohmeyer, a senior at North Carolina State University, was the recipient.

Women in Aerospace is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and NASA leaders have been involved with the organization throughout its history. The organization has previously recognized NASA leaders for their contributions. Lynn Cline, deputy associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, received the Outstanding Member Award in 2009.

MAVEN Mission to Investigate How Sun Steals Martian Atmosphere

An artist's conception of the MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center




In the upper left of this Hubble Space Telescope image, at high northern latitudes, a large chevron-shaped area of water ice clouds mark a storm front. Along the right limb, a large cloud system has formed around the Olympus Mons volcano. Credit: NASA
› Larger image The Red Planet bleeds. Not blood, but its atmosphere, slowly trickling away to space. The culprit is our sun, which is using its own breath, the solar wind, and its radiation to rob Mars of its air. The crime may have condemned the planet's surface, once apparently promising for life, to a cold and sterile existence.

Features on Mars resembling dry riverbeds, and the discovery of minerals that form in the presence of water, indicate that Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and was warm enough for liquid water to flow on the surface. However, somehow that thick atmosphere got lost in space. It appears Mars has been cold and dry for billions of years, with an atmosphere so thin, any liquid water on the surface quickly boils away while the sun's ultraviolet radiation scours the ground.

Such harsh conditions are the end of the road for known forms of life. Although it's possible that martian life went underground, where liquid water may still exist and radiation can't reach.

The lead suspect for the theft is the sun, and its favorite M.O. may be the solar wind. All planets in our solar system are constantly blasted by the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas that continuously blows from the sun's surface into space. On Earth, our planet's global magnetic field shields our atmosphere by diverting most of the solar wind around it. The solar wind’s electrically charged particles, ions and electrons, have difficulty crossing magnetic fields.

"Mars can't protect itself from the solar wind because it no longer has a shield, the planet's global magnetic field is dead," said Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, Boulder. Jakosky is the Principal Investigator for NASA's MAVEN mission, which will investigate what is responsible for the loss of the martian atmosphere. NASA selected the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) on September 15, 2008.

Mars lost its global magnetic field in its youth billions of years ago. Once its planet-wide magnetic field disappeared, Mars' atmosphere was exposed to the solar wind and most of it could have been gradually stripped away. "Fossil" magnetic fields remaining in ancient surfaces and other local areas on Mars don't provide enough coverage to shield much of the atmosphere from the solar wind.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN), set to launch in 2013, will explore the planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere and interactions with the sun and solar wind. Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's Principal Investigator discusses the mission. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Smith

Although the solar wind might be the primary method, like an accomplished burglar, the sun’s emissions can steal the martian atmosphere in many ways. However, most follow a basic M.O., the solar wind and the sun’s ultraviolet radiation turns the uncharged atoms and molecules in Mars' upper atmosphere into electrically charged particles (ions). Once electrically charged, electric fields generated by the solar wind carry them away. The electric field is produced by the motion of the charged, electrically conducting solar wind across the interplanetary, solar-produced magnetic field, the same dynamic generators use to produce electrical power.

An exception to this dominant M.O. are atoms and molecules that have enough speed from solar heating to simply run away, they remain electrically neutral, but become hot enough to escape Mars' gravity. Also, solar extreme ultraviolet radiation can be absorbed by molecules, breaking them into their constituent atoms and giving each atom enough energy that it might be able to escape from the planet.

There are other suspects. Mars has more than 20 ancient craters larger than 600 miles across, scars from giant impacts by asteroids the size of small moons. This bombardment could have blasted large amounts of the martian atmosphere into space. However, huge martian volcanoes that erupted after the impacts, like Olympus Mons, could have replenished the martian atmosphere by venting massive amounts of gas from the planet's interior.

It's possible that the hijacked martian air was an organized crime, with both impacts and the solar wind contributing. Without the protection of its magnetic shield, any replacement martian atmosphere that may have issued from volcanic eruptions eventually would also have been stripped away by the solar wind.

Earlier Mars spacecraft missions have caught glimpses of the heist. For example, flows of ions from Mars' upper atmosphere have been seen by both NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft.

"Previous observations gave us 'proof of the crime' but only provided tantalizing hints at how the sun pulls it off — the various ways Mars can lose its atmosphere to solar activity," said Joseph Grebowsky of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "MAVEN will examine all known ways the sun is currently swiping the Martian atmosphere, and may discover new ones as well. It will also watch how the loss changes as solar activity changes over a year. Linking different loss rates to changes in solar activity will let us go back in time to estimate how quickly solar activity eroded the Martian atmosphere as the sun evolved." Grebowsky is the Project Scientist for MAVEN.

As the martian atmosphere thinned, the planet got drier as well, because water vapor in the atmosphere was also lost to space, and because any remaining water froze out as the temperatures dropped when the atmosphere disappeared. MAVEN can discover how much water has been lost to space by measuring hydrogen isotope ratios.

Isotopes are heavier versions of an element. For example, deuterium is a heavy version of hydrogen. Normally, two atoms of hydrogen join to an oxygen atom to make a water molecule, but sometimes the heavy and rare, deuterium takes a hydrogen atom's place.

On Mars, hydrogen escapes faster because it is lighter than deuterium. Since the lighter version escapes more often, over time, the martian atmosphere has less and less hydrogen compared to the amount of deuterium remaining. The martian atmosphere therefore becomes richer and richer in deuterium.

The MAVEN team will measure the amount of hydrogen compared to the amount of deuterium in Mars' upper atmosphere, which is the planet's present-day hydrogen to deuterium (H/D) ratio. They will compare it to the ratio Mars had when it was young -- the original H/D ratio. The original ratio is estimated from observations of the H/D ratio in comets and asteroids, which are believed to be pristine, "fossil" remnants of our solar system's formation.

Comparing the present and original H/D ratios will allow the team to calculate how much hydrogen, and therefore water, has been lost over Mars' lifetime. For example, if the team discovers the martian atmosphere is ten times richer in deuterium today, the planet's original quantity of water must have been at least ten times greater than that seen today.

MAVEN will also help determine how much martian atmosphere has been lost over time by measuring the isotope ratios of other elements in the air, such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon.

MAVEN is scheduled for launch between November 18 and December 7, 2013. If it is launched November 18, it will arrive at Mars on September 16, 2014 for its year-long mission.

So You Want to Build a Satellite? A look at MAVEN's next steps on the road to becoming a real satellite. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Smith

MAVEN is part of NASA's Mars Scout program, funded by NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. The University of Colorado will coordinate the science team and science operations. NASA Goddard will manage the project and provide mission systems engineering, mission design, and safety and mission assurance. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will navigate the spacecraft, provide the Deep Space Network, and an Electra telecommunications relay package. Instruments on the spacecraft will be provided by the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Colorado, Boulder, and NASA Goddard, with the Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, Toulouse, France, providing the sensor for one instrument. Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md., will develop the spacecraft, conduct assembly, test and launch operations, and provide mission operations at their Littleton, Colorado facility.

Mission Information

Image above: The STS-133 crew members, from the left, are NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Alvin Drew, both mission specialists; Eric Boe, pilot; Steve Lindsey, commander; Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott, both mission specialists. Image credit: NASA

Upcoming Mission: STS-133
Discovery will deliver and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module, the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and provide critical spare components to the International Space Station. This will be the 35th shuttle mission to the station.
+ Read more

Previous Mission: STS-132
Space shuttle Atlantis delivered an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station.
+ Read more

Crew Returns to Johnson -- Techs to Check Out GUCP

Discovery's six STS-133 astronauts left NASA's Kennedy Space Center in their T-38 jets shortly after 3 p.m. EDT, Nov. 5, to return home to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Discovery's liftoff to the International Space Station was postponed because of a leak in the ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) at Launch Pad 39A, which prompted a scrub of Friday's launch attempt.

Mission managers also will look at a crack in the external tank foam that developed as supercold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen were being drained from the tank -- although the crack did not develop until after the launch attempt was called off.

Discovery's next possible launch opportunity comes Nov. 30 at 4:05 a.m. EST.

Space Shuttle Mission: STS-133

Image above: The Ground Umbilical Carrier Plate, or GUCP, on the launch pad Friday morning. Photo Credit: NASA TV
› Hi-res Image
› Gigapan of Launch Pad 39A

Foam Crack Detail
› Hi-res Detail of Foam

During space shuttle Discovery's final spaceflight, the STS-133 crew members will take important spare parts to the International Space Station along with the Express Logistics Carrier-4. Discovery has been moved to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Additional Resources
› STS-133 Press Kit (3.3. Mb PDF)
› STS-133 Mission Summary (778 Kb PDF)
› STS-133
› Discovery facts (351 Kb PDF)
› Discovery's Career in Photos

All About the Orbiters
› Orbiter News
› Discovery Retrospective
› The Space Shuttle Era
› Space Shuttle Tribute Images

Shuttle Discovery set for final mission

Discovery, the oldest space shuttle in NASA's fleet, is readying for its final mission on Wednesday following repairs to leaks in a pressurisation system that has twice delayed the launch.

"Work is on schedule. We completed flight pressurisation and all went well. That is behind us now," Steve Payne, NASA test director, told reporters as the countdown to launch kicked off at 2:00 pm (1800 GMT) Sunday.

The mission, initially scheduled for Monday, was postponed so Kennedy Space Center technicians could repair quick-disconnect fittings in the system used to pressurised one of Discovery's orbital maneuvering rocket engines.

Discovery and its six American astronauts will now launch from Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 3.52pm local time on Wednesday bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

The weather forecast remains 70 per cent for favourable conditions, Kathy Winters, Cape Canaveral's senior meteorologist, said at a press briefing, adding that there were slight concerns of possible rain and clouds in the launch area.

The flight to the orbiting ISS is the fourth and final shuttle flight of the year, and the last scheduled for Discovery, the oldest in the three-shuttle fleet that is being retired in 2011.

Discovery has been the busiest shuttle in history, with a record 38 trips into space since its first launch in 1984. According to NASA, it has travelled over 230 million kilometres during that time, involving 5,628 orbits of the Earth over 351 days.

NASA has long relied on the Discovery spacecraft at key points along its 26-year career -- the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, the first ever female shuttle pilot Eileen Collins in 1995, and in 1998 it carried US space icon John Glenn to become the oldest human to fly in space at age 77.

Its all-American crew on this voyage, including female mission specialist Nicole Stott, will deliver a pressurised logistics module called Leonardo, which will be permanently attached to the spacestation to give it more storage space.

The shuttle will also bring Robonaut 2, the first human-like robot in space, and a permanent addition to the orbiting space station, as well as spare parts.

Two space walks, for maintenance work and component installation, are scheduled.

The three US shuttles -- the other two are Atlantis and Endeavour -- are due to be sent off to become museum pieces after a final shuttle mission to the space station in late February.

That means Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a modernised version of which recently dropped off three fresh crew members to the ISS, doubling the crew to six, will for several years be the only vehicle for transporting humans into space.

However, NASA's recently approved 2011 budget has left the door open to an additional shuttle flight in June.

Shuttle countdown begins as test conductors prepare for launch

The countdown to Discovery's final flight got under way at 2 p.m. Sunday, after a two-day delay to fix a technical problem.

Clocks at Kennedy Space Center began ticking down from the T minus 43-hour mark, a process NASA hopes culminates in the 3:52 p.m. Wednesday blastoff of the shuttle and six astronauts to the International Space Station.

Orbiter Test Conductor Mark Taffet was among dozens of engineers who manned stations in Firing Room 4 in the Launch Control Center, passing by a message that read: "The greatest launch team in the world enters through these doors."

Beneath an angled two-story wall of reinforced windows 3.4 miles from the launch pad, Taffet donned a headset overlooking banks of wood-paneled consoles where experts would monitor shuttle systems around the clock for more than 70 hours until liftoff.

"There's an intensity, for sure, but a good intensity," said Taffet, a 50-year-old Rockledge, Fla., resident and United Space Alliance engineer, of the atmosphere during the three-day countdown. "Your senses are definitely heightened."

In the final hours before Discovery receives a "go" for a 39th flight, NASA and contractor test conductors like Taffet will make sure launch preparations stay on schedule and are performed safely.

The preparations include Monday's loading of fuel cells that will power Discovery in orbit, fueling of the external tank on Wednesday, setup of the crew module and the astronauts' entry into it.

With only a 10-minute window to launch the shuttle, there's little margin for delay if a challenging technical glitch arises or if rain showers approach at the wrong moment.
"If there's an issue going, there's definitely tension," Taffet said. "Sometimes countdowns are extremely smooth, and people are waiting for something to happen."

Unscripted, high-pressure moments that produce creative "work arounds" can become the most fun part of the job.

This countdown, Taffet is backing up United Space Alliance colleague John Kracsun, the lead orbiter test conductor.

Space Radar Provides a Taste of Comet Hartley 2

Twelve radar images of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 were obtained by the Arecibo Observatory's planetary.