NASA finds water on the moon

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, the US space agency said Friday heralding a giant leap forward in space exploration and boosting hopes of a permanent lunar base.

Preliminary data from a dramatic experiment on the moon "indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA said in a statement.

"The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," it added, as ecstatic scientists celebrated the landmark discovery.

"Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the 79-million-dollar LCROSS mission.

The data was found after NASA sent two spacecraft crashing into the lunar surface last month in a dramatic experiment to probe Earth's nearest neighbor for water.

One rocket slammed into the Cabeus crater, near the lunar southern pole, at around 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) per hour.

Moon holds key to solar system's secrets

The rocket was followed four minutes later by a spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the impact which sent a huge plume of material billowing up from the bottom of the crater, untouched by sunlight for billions of years.

"In the 20 to 30 meter crater we found maybe about a dozen, at least, two-gallon buckets of water. This is an initial result," Colaprete told reporters.

"We are ecstatic," he added in a statement.

"Multiple lines of evidence show water was present in both the high angle vapor plume and the ejecta curtain created by the LCROSS Centaur impact.

"The concentration and distribution of water and other substances requires further analysis, but it is safe to say Cabeus holds water," Colaprete said.

Scientists had previously theorized that, except for the possibility of ice at the bottom of craters, the moon was totally dry.

Finding water on Earth's natural satellite is a major breakthrough in space exploration.

"It's very exciting, it is painting a new image of the moon," said Gregory Deloy, from the University of California hailing it as "an extraordinary discovery."

He theorized that "one of the possible source of water is a comet."

"We're unlocking the mysteries of our nearest neighbor and, by extension, the solar system," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington.

"The full understanding of the LCROSS data may take some time. The data is that rich," Colaprete cautioned.

"Along with the water in Cabeus, there are hints of other intriguing substances. The permanently shadowed regions of the moon are truly cold traps, collecting and preserving material over billions of years."

Only 12 men, all Americans, have ever walked on the moon, and the last to set foot there were in 1972, at the end of the Apollo missions.

But NASA's ambitious plans to put US astronauts back on the moon by 2020 to establish manned lunar bases for further exploration to Mars under the Constellation project are increasingly in doubt.

NASA's budget is currently too small to pay for Constellation's Orion capsule, a more advanced and spacious version of the Apollo lunar module, as well as the Ares I and Ares V launchers needed to put the craft in orbit.

A key review panel appointed by President Barack Obama said existing budgets are not large enough to fund a return mission before 2020.

soucre : news.yahoo.com

Hosting Destruction

This artist's concept illustrates the two types of spiral galaxies that populate our universe: those with plump middles, or central bulges (upper left), and those lacking the bulge (foreground).

New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope provide strong evidence that the slender, bulgeless galaxies can, like their chubbier counterparts, harbor supermassive black holes at their cores. Previously, astronomers thought that a galaxy without a bulge could not have a supermassive black hole. In this illustration, jets shooting away from the black holes are depicted as thin streams.

The findings are reshaping theories of galaxy formation, suggesting that a galaxy's "waistline" does not determine whether it will be home to a big black hole.

Skirting an Obstacle

This view from the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows tracks left by backing out of a wind-formed ripple after the rover's wheels had started to dig too deeply into the dust and sand of the ripple.

The frames combined into this view were taken on the 1,867th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's mission on Mars (April 25, 2009). The scene spans 120 degrees, from southeastward on the left to westward on the right.

Two sols earlier, Opportunity drove 310 feet south-southwestward before stopping when the rover detected that its wheels were slipping more than the limit that engineers had set for the drive. That Sol 1865 (April 23, 2009) drive created the tracks that enter this scene from the left and ended with wheels on the left side of the rover partially embedded in the ripple. On Sol 1866, Opportunity began to back away from this potential trap, but moved only about 11 inches. On Sol 1867, the rover backed up 12 feet before taking this picture. Subsequently, Opportunity proceeded on a path avoiding the ripple where the wheel slippage occurred.

For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about about 40 inches). This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.

International Space Station

In a project known as Butterflies in Space, the Atlantis space shuttle will next week carry a butterfly habitat containing monarch and painted lady adults and larvae to the International Space Station.

The idea is that thousands of schoolkids across the US will be able to study the effects of space travel on the little astronauts, comparing them with examples reared in their own classroms. The children will be able to monitor their progress via still and video images.

"One of the most exciting things about this project is that we can use the International Space Station to bring spaceflight experiments into classrooms around the country," said BioServe Director Louis Stodieck, principal investigator on the project. "Our continuing goal is to inspire K-12 students around the country in science, technology, engineering and math."

The butterfly payload has been designed and built by BioServe Space Technologies in CU-Boulder's aerospace engineering department and will carry two butterfly habitats containing monarch and painted lady butterfly larvae and enough nectar and other food to support them as they develop.

Atlantis space Station.

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians at Launch Pad 39A begin work today to get space shuttle Atlantis' propulsion systems ready for flight to the International Space Station.
The shuttle's three main engines, as well as the orbital maneuvering system and reaction control system, which will be used to steer Atlantis in space, will start being pressurized for flight.

Techs also will complete installation of sensors and microphones in Atlantis' aft section today for the acoustic environment testing. Final systems checks in the shuttle's aft section are complete.

The STS-129 astronauts will fly to Kennedy tomorrow in NASA's Shuttle Training Aircraft. Landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility is expected around 12 p.m. EST. NASA TV will air the crew's arrival live on the Web at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The countdown to launch begins 1 p.m. Friday.

Liftoff of Atlantis' 11-day cargo mission to the space station is set for 2:28 p.m. EST Nov. 16.

Atlantis and Crew Prepare for Flight

The STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charles O. Hobaugh and piloted by Barry E. Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert L. Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips to space.

Atlantis and its crew will deliver two control moment gyroscopes, equipment and EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 and 2 to the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Atlantis also will return station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth and is slated to be the final space shuttle crew rotation flight.

Observatories Celebrate International Year of Astronomy

A never-before-seen view of the turbulent heart of our Milky Way galaxy is being unveiled by NASA on Nov. 10. This event will commemorate the 400 years since Galileo first turned his telescope to the heavens in 1609.

In celebration of this International Year of Astronomy, NASA is releasing images of the galactic center region as seen by its Great Observatories to more than 150 planetariums, museums, nature centers, libraries and schools across the country.

The sites will unveil a giant, 6-foot-by-3-foot print of the bustling hub of our galaxy that combines a near-infrared view from the Hubble Space Telescope, an infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope and an X-ray view from the Chandra X-ray Observatory into one multi-wavelength picture. Experts from all three observatories carefully assembled the final image from large mosaic photo surveys taken by each telescope. This composite image provides one of the most detailed views ever of our galaxy's mysterious core.

Participating institutions also will display a matched trio of Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra images of the Milky Way's center on a second large panel measuring 3 feet by 4 feet. Each image shows the telescope's different wavelength view of the galactic center region, illustrating not only the unique science each observatory conducts, but also how far astronomy has come since Galileo.

Kennedy Space Center Runway Than Shuttle Ops

Space shuttle Endeavour rolls down the Shuttle Landing Facility runway past the air traffic control tower. The tower is about 100 feet above the 3-mile-long runway and affords controllers working inside a clear view of the SLF and much of the Kennedy Space Center area. They also have radar and other technology to watch the airspace around the center

The Shuttle Landing Facility was the takeoff point for Steve Fossett's record-setting solo flight aboard the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer.


Part of an air traffic controllers duties during launch and landing operations is coordinating the search-and-rescue teams and landing convoy that are on hand for potential shuttle work.


Air shows bring in the biggest variety of aircraft at once for the Shuttle Landing Facility. Here, an F-104 from Starfighters Inc., from bottom, two F-16s, an F-4 Phantom II and a pair of F-18s share the ramp at the SLF before a recent air show.

Since there is no weight limit on the SLF runway, it can host any aircraft in the world, no matter how big. Here, a European transport brings a module for the International Space Station so it can be processed and taken to the orbital laboratory by the space shuttle lear view of the SLF and much of the Kennedy Space Center area. They also have radar and other technology to watch the airspace around the center

Space Shuttle News

Less Than Two Weeks to Launch

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Launch Pad 39A technicians are loading space shuttle Atlantis' two, mass-memory units today. Located in the middeck's two avionics bays, each reel-to-reel digital magnetic tape storage device holds basic flight software for the shuttle's general purpose computers and can store additional data.

Preparations for final ordnance installations and connections at the pad will begin today and are expected to wrap up this weekend.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-129 mission's six astronauts will be given their L-10 physicals today. They'll also practice integrated entry procedures in Johnson's motion base simulator.

The STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charles O. Hobaugh and piloted by Barry E. Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert L. Satcher Jr., Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips to space.

Atlantis and its crew will deliver two control moment gyroscopes, equipment and EXPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 and 2 to the International Space Station. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Atlantis also will return station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth and is slated to be the final space shuttle crew rotation flight.

A Feel for Astronomy

The field of astronomy is very visual and can be challenging to teach to people who are visually impaired. For more than a decade, David Hurd has embraced this challenge as a space science professor at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Hurd and his wife Robin have worked through his university and with NASA to develop tactile, or textured, products that can be used in teaching about space to students who are visually impaired.

"So much of space is still so visual and so out of reach for them," Hurd said.

Hurd and tactile engineer John Matelock began creating tactile astronomy tools because a student with a visual impairment signed up for Hurd's introductory astronomy course. The course was primarily visual and auditory -- students used the university's planetarium, where Hurd pointed to and described what was there. Hurd and Matelock created a tactile star chart and a planisphere, which is used for determining the positions of the stars at a given time. Over the years Hurd has built a library of tactile charts, graphs and models.

Robin Hurd said it helped that her husband and Matelock shared a passion about astronomy. "I have a feeling John (Matelock) stayed up till midnight some nights making tactiles because he was so excited to be doing something astronomy-related," she said.

One of the Hurds' star products is a Tactile Guide to the Solar System. The guide is based on an earlier version that originated with NASA scientist Steve Dwornik and was developed by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and Cass Runyon, a professor at the College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. The guide illustrates the comparative size and distance of the planets in the solar system. It also details the individual characteristics of each planet. The objects in the guide are not smooth, like a ball, but textured so students can understand that planets have unique surface features.

"One of our passions is to make these things feel like they look," said David. "The easy way to do tactile material is to outline it, make dots for sun spots or solar flares, but it really doesn't feel like it really looks. So we try to come up with creative ways to make our tactiles feel like the images look."

The Hurds used materials such as cork and sand to produce a three-dimensional mold, called a master, to make objects "feel as they look." For example, satellite pictures of the sun show the sun as fibrous and bubbly, Robin described. The Hurds created a sun out of Spanish moss to give it that fibrous, bubbly feel. "So that when you feel the sun, you actually perceive the texture and can relate it to the actual image of the sun. This helps 'viewers' realize it is not like a smooth ball," Robin said.

The Tactile Guide to the Solar System includes a CD with digital talking text. The CD works with text readers, which convert text to speech, and refreshable Braille technology, which converts text to Braille. The digital talking text allows users to access detailed information about each planet and NASA missions. The guide is part of the Lunar Nautics Toolkit, available through NASA's Central Operations of Resources for Educators, or CORE.

In addition to working with students with visual impairments at Edinboro University, Hurd has four sons, none of whom are blind but three of whom have other disabilities. The youngest two are identical twins with physical disabilities that affect their walking and speech. The Hurds' middle son has mild autism and problems with auditory processing, social cues and non-verbal signals. "On a personal level, our passion for meeting the needs of people with disabilities comes partially because of the learning differences we see in our own kids," Robin said.

The development of tactile materials is just another way of inspiring the next generation of explorers, David Hurd said. "The difference is we're inspiring explorers who were overlooked in the past, and that's what's really exciting about what we're doing."

Hurd and Matelock's early products were created through the university. Matelock has since retired from the university, and David and Robin Hurd now develop tactile products and teaching materials through AAC Core Concepts. AAC stands for Alternative and Augmentative Communication. The Tactile Guide to the Solar System was developed in cooperation with NASA in support of the agency's goal of engaging Americans in NASA's missions.

In May, David and Robin Hurd were invited to attend a NASA Education forum in conjunction with the launch of the STS-125 Hubble Servicing Mission. The STS-125 mission carried into space two Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar coins to recognize the critical role Braille plays in the pursuit of careers in math and science by the visually impaired. This commemorative coin, only available until Dec. 11, 2009, is the first U.S. coin to have readable Braille. As authorized by Congress, the United States Braille coin will fund efforts by the National Federation of the Blind to reverse the Braille literacy crisis in America. After Dec. 11, any unsold coins will be melted.

It was Hurd's first time to see a space shuttle launch in person. "Even though I'm in the fringe -- and most people are in the fringe when you go to something like that -- you feel like such a part," Hurd said about participating in the launch. "It takes everybody to make that happen, from the engineers to the astronauts themselves, from the business people to those involved with education and public outreach, from the school administration to the school teachers to the students.

"It was so neat to feel that kinship. Even though we couldn't be on board, we were part of that launch."

Space Shuttle Overview: Atlantis (OV-104)

NASA's fourth space-rated space shuttle, OV-104 "Atlantis," was named after the two-masted boat that served as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts from 1930 to 1966. The boat had a 17-member crew and accommodated up to five scientists who worked in two onboard laboratories, examining water samples and marine life. The crew also used the first electronic sounding devices to map the ocean floor.

Construction of the orbiter Atlantis began on March 3, 1980. Thanks to lessons learned in the construction and testing of orbiters Enterprise, Columbia and Challenger, Atlantis was completed in about half the time in man-hours spent on Columbia. This is largely attributed to the use of large thermal protection blankets on the orbiter's upper body, rather than individual tiles requiring more attention.

Weighing in at 151,315 pounds when it rolled out of the assembly plant in Palmdale, Calif., Atlantis was nearly 3.5 tons lighter than Columbia. The new orbiter arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 9, 1985, and over the next seven months was prepared for her maiden voyage.

Like her seafaring predecessor, orbiter Atlantis has carried on the spirit of exploration with several important missions of her own. On Oct. 3, 1985, Atlantis launched on her first space flight, STS-51-J, with a classified payload for the U.S. Department of Defense. The vehicle went on to carry four more DOD payloads on later missions.


Atlantis also served as the on-orbit launch site for many noteworthy spacecraft, including planetary probes Magellan and Galileo, as well as the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. An impressive array of onboard science experiments took place during most missions to further enhance space research in low Earth orbit.

Starting with STS-71, Atlantis pioneered the Shuttle-Mir missions, flying the first seven missions to dock with the Russian space station. When linked, Atlantis and Mir together formed the largest spacecraft in orbit at the time. The missions to Mir included the first on-orbit U.S. crew exchanges, now a common occurrence on the International Space Station. On STS-79, the fourth docking mission, Atlantis ferried astronaut Shannon Lucid back to Earth after her record-setting 188 days in orbit aboard Mir.

In recent years, Atlantis has delivered several vital components to the International Space Station, including the U.S. laboratory module, Destiny, as well as the Joint Airlock Quest and multiple sections of the Integrated Truss structure that makes up the Station's backbone. As NASA seeks to fulfill the Vision for Space Exploration, beginning with the completion of the Station, Atlantis will be called upon for many missions to come.

Construction Milestones - OV-104

Jan. 29, 1979	Contract Award
March 30, 1980	Start structural assembly of crew module
Nov. 23, 1981	Start structural assembly of aft-fuselage
June 13, 1983	Wings arrive at Palmdale from Grumman
Dec. 2, 1983	Start of Final Assembly
April 10, 1984	Completed final assembly
March 6, 1985	Rollout from Palmdale
April 3, 1985	Overland transport from Palmdale to Edwards
April 9, 1985	Delivery to Kennedy Space Center
Sept. 5, 1985	Flight Readiness Firing
Oct. 3, 1985	First Flight (STS-51-J)

Upgrades and Features

By early 2005, Atlantis had undergone two overhauls known as Orbiter Maintenance Down Periods. Some of the most significant upgrades and new features included:

• Installation of the drag chute
• New plumbing lines and electrical connections configuring the orbiter for extended duration missions
• New insulation for the main landing gear doors
• Improved nosewheel steering
• Preparations for the Mir Orbiter Docking System unit later installed at Kennedy
• Installation of the International Space Station airlock and Orbiter Docking System
• Installation of the Multifunction Electronic Display System, or "glass cockpit"