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Showing posts with label NASA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NASA. Show all posts

Technical Writer for Space Industries: an Interview with Lori Yost

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , ,



Although I'm not writing any more blogs for a while, I may interview some folks in the space industry.  My original thought was to save them for a series on careers, I decided to post Lori's since she was so kind to do this, and I'm not sure when I'll be starting this blog up again.

The space industry is growing, and there will be increasing job opportunities.  Of course, most of us think of astronaut and rocket scientists, when in reality, there are thousands of different career opportunities.  I’m starting an irregular series on some of the kind of jobs you can find in the space industry, and the people who are helping expand the role of humankind in space.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Lori Yost, a technical writer for ZIN Technologies’ NASA/Government division (http://www.zin-tech.com/Home.ASP).  ZIN Technologies provides integrated products and spaceflight hardware development services to NASA and Fortune 500 companies.  ZIN is located in Ohio, and has won multiple small business awards for its work. 
Lori, welcome!

Tell us a little about yourself:
I’ve been a technical writer with ZIN Technologies for the last five years.  Before that, I spent 9 ½ years as a Software Quality Assurance Specialist with two different companies where I was exposed to writing, editing, and executing various documentation testing purposes.  I have over 20 years experience in Information Technology in various capacities.  

How did you get the job?
Prior to working for ZIN, I was working for a mortgage software company that created software for loan origination and the secondary market.  When there was a downturn in the mortgage industry in 2007, I was laid off.  I was only out of work for a short time.  I saw an ad in the paper for ZIN Technologies for a software developer which I did not think I was qualified for but I applied online anyway.  I wanted to get my resume on file.  I was surprised when I was called for an interview almost immediately.  When I interviewed, they told me that were they were thinking about hiring a technical writer and wanted to see if I was interested and qualified for the position.  I was definitely both.

You write the tech documents for two of the experimental racks on the ISS—what does that entail?  Repair & troubleshooting as well as how to use them, or am I completely off track?
You are off track (somewhat).  When I first started with ZIN, I was writing help files and software user manuals for the two experimental racks.  The racks are part of the Fluids and Combustion Facility.  One experiment rack studies combustion (CIR – Combustion Integrated Rack) and the other experimental rack studies fluids (FIR – Fluids Integrated Rack).  Both racks are installed on the Destiny Laboratory Module on the ISS.  

Currently, most of my time is spent writing verification reports for the both experimental racks.  We send up parts and equipment to maintain the racks along with new equipment that will be need to be installed for any new experiments that are scheduled to be performed by either rack.  The equipment is designed, built, and thoroughly tested by our engineers before it is sent to the International Space Station.  (If something goes wrong, it not likely they can go out to the nearest store and by a replacement.)  The reports can be very detailed at times.  I work closely with the engineers to create and edit these reports.  I also regularly attend Engineering Review Boards and Configuration Review Boards and write the reports from those meetings.  In addition, I write and edit other documentation when needed.

Are you writing for the astronauts to use on the ISS?  I think that’s be a challenge to keep them simple and comprehensive, so that even astronauts for whom English is not their native language or whose expertise is not  in this field are able to use the equipment properly.
No I do not write any crew procedures.  That is done by another team.  However, I do know that the astronauts are trained by the team on both racks before they are allowed to handle anything with the CIR or the FIR.  It must be noted that both racks are designed to run experiments from the ground without crew intervention by a ground support team from the Glenn Research Center.  Crew time is precious and MUST be scheduled.  When a crew member interacts with either rack, it is usually to provide on-orbit maintenance and configuration.

Aside from “study hard,” what would be your advice to someone who would like to get into the space industry as a technical writer?
When I was in school there were no degrees in technical writing.  Now there are including my alma mater, Youngstown State University (YSU calls it Professional Writing and Editing).  I was a communications major in college and I learned most everything about computers the hard way.  

I see that ZIN is also working with the Orion crew capsule.  Will you be doing anything with that?
At this time no.  I’ve worked other projects besides FCF when requested and at this time no one has requested my time.  

Lori, thanks so much for taking time to share a little about your career!

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Space Studies Tuesday: Types of Spacecraft

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Find the lesson here: http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf9-1.php

Robotic spacecraft are divided into eight categories, which are explained in the lesson. I thought I'd post about a current mission in each category:

Flyby spacecraft:   EPOXI, which finished its mission in 2010, flew by the Hartley 2 comet, checking out the differences between it and another comet it observed, Temple 1.  It also took reading of five distant stars to find other planets. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.cfm?id=5872

Orbiter spacecraft:  The Dawn spacecraft is an orbiter, with the mission of studying two protoplanets, "baby planets whose formation was interrupted by the formation of Jupiter," according the the JPL website..  Dawn has been studying Vesta  and is moving on this week to Ceres. It uses an ion engine that generates a small but continuous amount of thrust. http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/

Atmospheric spacecraft:  Huygens, which is mentioned in the lesson, is the latest example I found.  http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/huygens.php.  There are other craft that are studying the atmosphere, like the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), which will study Mars' atmosphere to determine how had changed over time.  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/maven_20080915.html


Lander spacecraft: The next lander planned by NASA is InSight, which in a sense is also a penetrator, as it will drill into the surface of Mars to gain insight into its makeup and evolution.  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.cfm?id=5928

Of course, the goal on the commercial side is to send some really awesome landers that will serve as habitats for humans, such as in the Mars-One mission: http://mars-one.com/en/

Penetrator spacecraft:  There haven't been any actual penetrator spacecraft missions in several years.  The latest one on the NASA site is Deep Impact, which studied the comet Tempel 1: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm


Rover spacecraft: Obviously, the spacecraft of the day, Mars Curiosity, is a rover. What I didn't realize is how slow the rover moves. On last Tuesday, it traveled 52 feet, and the goal, apparently, is a football field length a day. Check out the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/mars-rover-drive-curiosity-glenelg_n_1841698.html? Did you know you can follow Curiosity on Twitter?  http://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity

Observatory spacecraft:  Hubble is an obvious example.  However, I'm going to mention Planetary Resources' ARKYD LEO spacecraft, which will be several orbiting telescopes thatwill search out asteroids for mining.  http://www.planetaryresources.com/technology/leo-space-telescope/

Communications & Navigation spacecraft:  By far, the most familiar of spacecraft, we depend on these kinds of craft daily.

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Posted by Karina Fabian

NASA COTS program paying off? Summary of Aviation Week article

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , , , , , , ,


I saw this interesting analysis of the commercial space launch industry in Aviation Week: http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/AW_04_16_2012_p40-444890.xml.  This is a 4-page article that’s definitely worth reading, esp. if you’re interested in the commercial space ventures and why the government should continue to support commercial space ventures through NASA’s COTS program.  However, here’s the down-low:

--NASA’s spent about $925 million dollars in seed money to commercial space ventures.  This has helped private space companies (like SpaceX, which is closest to its goal) to develop.

--As commercial companies become successful, they will drive down the cost of launches across the board as other companies work to keep their part of the market share.

--Big government contractors will also have to innovate in order to keep up.

--One example of innovation is the use of less expensive but more sophisticated safety systems, like escape systems.  These will rely more heavily on computer decisions to abort because the decision needs to be made so quickly to save the crew.

--The Atlas V is still a popular choice for launch vehicles because it’s reliable, it does the job, and it’s available.  Boeing and United Launch Alliance are using the Atlas V.  Since the Atlas is already used by the Air Force, using it for manned space will also mean more being produced, which lowers costs.

--SpaceX, of course, built its own rocket, the Falcon 9 itself, starting out with the intention of making it man-rated according to the Space Act Agreement, but it needs an upgrade to meet the Federal Acquisition Requirements for man-rating .  (It doesn’t say why the Space Act  requirements and FAR are not the same.  May I suggest government bureaucracy?)

--NASA has funded several programs for its “base period;” after which, it has an optional period where it will evaluate the competitors and decide who it wants to work with in the longer run.  Those will be the ones they work with fully man-certifying the launch vehicles.

--Just an aside, but Sierra Nevada is being bankrolled by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  It’s interesting to me how many Internet business billionaires are funding commercial space.  Is it the geek factor?  If so, go, geek factor!

--Even if NASA were to only select one contractor for its manned space missions, it still wins because companies will have developed rockets that can carry unmanned capsules or launch other things into space.

--NASA asked for $830 million to invest in commercial crew launch.  Despite Obama’s promise to support commercial space, it was cut to $406 million, less than half of what they asked for and half of what they used the year before.  That’s going to delay commercial manned flights to the ISS by at least a year.  (During which time, we will continue to fund Russia’s space program.

--However, NASA isn’t the only potential customer for manned spaceflights.  Bigelow is continuing to perfect its inflatable space habitats, which could be used for tourism, science & industry, and other nations that don’t have enough resources of “lack the wherewithal to develop their own space laboratories.”  Sierra Nevada, meanwhile, is working on a shuttle-type system with the eye on satellite-servicing.

Although Aviation Week says the NASA investment will “pay off as soon as” April, they were not speaking financially.  Rather, they see the program as having sparked a space-launch market that didn’t exist before (that of manned space launch.)  Time will tell if this market can bear the industry being built.  Most likely, we will see companies rise and fall, just like in any industry, as new technology and new approaches (not to mention marketing) are tried.  It will also depend on whether there are customers enough for this market.  It may be a “cottage industry” for awhile, until we find a way to make it truly profitable.

Just a note:  SpaceX has delayed its launch until early May.  They have to get this one right, so they're being extra-careful.  http://www.space.com/15392-spacex-dragon-launch-delay-announced.html

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Watching the Space Race: Some (School) Assembly Necessary

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , ,

By Walt Staples



Recently, I read about an presentation that packed in well over 3,000 in the the small town of Wise, Virginia. Considering Wise has an official population of 3,286, this isn't that shabby a house. I can think of a number of reasonably successful bands that would cheerfully sacrifice their lead singer—on stage—for those kind of numbers. So who were the headliners who brought people from five rural mountain counties to over-fill the University of Virginia at Wise's Convocation Center? One gentleman who was there, and two who weren't.

The draw in this case was astronaut Leland Melvin in the flesh, and astronauts Dan Burbank and Don Pettit, who happened to be about 250 miles (400 km) overhead. They were taking part in something NASA does right--outreach to students. While Melvin hosted, Burbank and Pettit aboard the International Space Station fielded questions on camera from the kids.


Somehow, these talks seem to make more of an impression on country folk. Perhaps, it's because they're less distracted than city dwellers, or they're less into “cool” for coolness sake. Either way, the citizenry comes away with the feeling that this view of their tax dollars in action is very acceptable.

Being a hick, I remember these shots of rural and small town excitement very well. The first one I experienced occurred when I was in third grade in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. I was more than pleased when Mrs. Whitlock announced that we were going to go to an assembly that afternoon. I don't remember her saying exactly why we were going to it, but it would short-circuit my bete noir, spelling—a very good thing. We trooped into the cafetorium (a combination cafeteria and auditorium that did neither function well) along with the other eleven grades and seated ourselves with some expectation. Standing down front behind a table was a man who looked remarkably like Don Herbert, the host of NBC's Saturday science show for kids, “Watch Mr. Wizard.” On the long table before him were a number of drop cloth-covered objects. He raised his hands, and magic happened—we all fell silent. You might say he had presence. He announced that he was a scientist for the new Federal agency, NASA, and he was there to talk to us about spaceflight. He began sweeping the drop cloths from their hidden treasures with a flourish very like a stage magician. It worked beautifully, we were his. Among the items disclosed were a number of models of rockets such as the Explorer-Jupiter C and Vanguard and full size models of the two satellites. He explained why satellites didn't fall from orbit and that rockets operated using Newton's Third Law of Motion—reaction--and that they worked just fine in a vacuum as they didn't need to push against anything to move forward. To close his talk, he drew our attention to what appeared to be a three foot long piece of pipe resting horizontally on a wooden stand. He said it was a working jet engine that he would start, and warned us that it might be a bit loud. The man was a Jedi master of understatement. He touched it off and our eardrums met in the center of our heads (nowadays, such an action would result in six or eight Federal, state, and local agencies being all over him like a cheap suit and Lord only knows how many non-cheap lawsuits would be launched). Ears ringing as we walked back to our classrooms, I made a decision: to heck with the Flying Tiger P-40 model I'd planned to blow my one dollar allowance on that Friday, I was getting a rocket!

Nine years later, I was sitting in the bleachers of the county's only high school. We now lived on the south bank of the Potomac River. And standing down on the floor of the gym was another man from NASA. He was an astronaut in training for the follow up to the Apollo program and had the look and air of an aviator--unfashionable crewcut and all. He too had a number of models, only this time, they were of the Saturn V booster and Apollo spacecraft, the Apollo capsule with its Service Module, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), and a model of a moon-suited astronaut. One other model looked a whole lot like a truncated trumpet. He explained that it was a model of one of the five rocket engine nozzles on the first stage of the Saturn booster. He told us about the gazillion pounds of thrust it produced and asked the guys in the audience to consider how something like that might improve the performance of the Camaros, Furys, and Mustangs some of us were lucky enough to drive. He produced a model of a Mustang Fastback and remarked that there might be just one sticking point. He explained that the car and the nozzle were the same scale. He then demonstrated the problem by completely covering the car with the nozzle. Yep, a modification or three might be in order. He sent us off with one last word; in three months time, we would be the only people ever to witness the first time a man set his foot on soil that was not the Earth's.

He was very right. We few, we lucky few...



http://www.timesnews.net/article/9041422/packed-house-turns-out-at-uva-wise-for-chat-with-space-station-astronauts

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Watching the Space Race: High Expectations and Low Comedy

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , , ,

By Walt Staples





The lights of Deerfield twinkled below as I sat watching the fire. It was the week of deer season west of Blue Ridge and I was counting the days until Thanksgiving that November of 1960. In just three more days, I'd be ten. On the other side of the campfire, Junior glanced at his watch. “Hey, it's about six. Let's go see how the launch went.”

His father, slouched in a lawn chair, said, “You boys go ahead. I'm comfortable.” My father nodded his agreement.

Four of us were in the party that year; me, my father, a friend of his who worked for the government, and the friend's teenaged son, Junior. It had snowed the night after we'd made camp at the spring atop Virginia's Elliott Knob. On the way up to the Knob after seeing my grandmother and uncles, my father had decided that he smelled snow, so we stopped in Craigsville and picked enough groceries to keep us the week.

This deer season was special for me. It was the first in which I was allowed to carry a gun. I carried my father's old Stevens .30-30 bolt-action whose butt stock he'd cut down to fit me. At four foot tall and and about 80 pounds, the Stevens knocked the dust off me every time I fired it, but I figured it'd be worse on the deer's end of the equation. There were a couple of strings attached, though. One of the adults had to be with me and he had to give me the “go” signal before I could take the shot. In preparation before we came down from Northern Virginia, I had had to hit in the target's 10 ring seven out of eight shots. Also, I had to keep all the rifles and shotguns clean.

Inside the tent, Junior pulled the radio from under his cot. It was a special one as it could pick up FM broadcasts in addition to the normal AM, which explained why this small (for its time) radio was slightly larger and much heavier than a boombox. As he snapped it on and we waited for its tubes to warm up, I pulled out the gun cleaning kits, made sure the guns were indeed unloaded, and set to work. After sound began to come out of the speaker, he tuned the radio back and forth until a rich voice said, “...Evening, this is Douglas Edwards with the news. At Cape Canaveral today”--he had our whole attention--”the Mercury-Redstone test did not launch due to technical difficulties. The capsule's escape tower did, however, successfully attain an altitude of some 4000 feet. NASA reports technicians are examining the Redstone booster as we speak. It is expected that this will move the suborbital test launch of the unmanned Mercury capsule into December. In other news, UN troops clashed with Congolese government forces in Leopoldville...” Junior and I looked at each other—huh? The rocket didn't launch but the escape tower worked?

                                                                                    *

The technicians at Canaveral were indeed examining the Mercury-Redstone, MR-1, but from a very long distance. A very long, safe distance. The reason for their standoffishness was that they had a fully fueled booster rocket sitting on the pad with live batteries and live explosive devices just waiting to make a very spectacular fireworks display.

Until 7 November 1960, MR-1 had been fully two days ahead of schedule. This alone should have had people rubbing rabbits' feet and watching for incoming asteroids. It is an old engineering truism that if things are moving smoothly, you're probably missing something. What the folks at Huntsville and the Cape were missing was that the MR-1 Redstone with its increased tankage and the capsule weighed  more than a normal Redstone. Possibly, they were lulled when things seemed to return to normal with the scrubbing of the 7 November launch because of a drop in helium pressure within the capsule control system. After removing and tearing down the capsule to replace a helium relief valve and hydrogen peroxide tank, and to redo some wiring, the bird was reassembled and readied for launch on 21 November.

Well, it launched...sort of. When ignition occurred, the MR-1 rose majestically to an altitude of approximately 4 inches (10 cm) and the engine cut off. The bird settled back on the pad, no doubt with a thud (with all the racket of the Rocketdyne A-7 engine's initial firing, this, mercifully, was drowned out). The escape tower's engines fired next and the tower, leaving the capsule--that it was supposed to lift to safety--firmly in place atop the booster, rose to 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) and traveled 400 yards (366 meters) downrange—the epitome of “suborbital.” A few seconds later, the cover of the capsule's parachute compartment flew off and the drogue chute deployed, followed by the main chute and, then, the reserve chute; the three of which draped fashionably down over the side of the capsule and booster. Potentially, the entertainment wasn't over yet, as sitting atop 20 tons (18,160 kg) of liquid oxygen, ethyl alcohol—aka: ethanol—and hydrogen peroxide (a unfriendly mix at the best of times) were live retro rockets, explosive bolts, and a number of other pyrotechnic devices outlawed for 4th of July festivities, in addition to fully charged batteries in the ungrounded booster. Piling on yet more joy, the innocent parachute trio hanging over the side, if caught by the wind would topple the booster-capsule combination with unpleasant results. Happily, for Wernher von Braun and the NASA crew, Flatus, German god of winds, apparently relented and the airs stayed calm.

 The next morning, when the batteries hopefully were exhausted, an extremely brave team led by Walter Burke of McDonnell Aircraft Corporation—builder of the capsule—disarmed the pyrotechnics and removed the hanging umbilical cord from the ungrounded rocket.

So, what caused NASA's shortest flight? When the Redstone's engine fired and the rocket began to lift, it moved slower than the original Redstone missile because it was heavier. A modified, too-long ground  (another account says “control”) cable pulled out before the umbilical was pulled away. This caused a relay to trip as the ground plug came out more slowly than on the earlier missile, shutting down the engine. At shutdown, the escape tower thinking that the rocket had reached its normal engine shutoff altitude, blew its explosive bolts and jettisoned itself as no longer needed. The capsule getting an abort message below 10,000 feet (472 meters) began its proper parachute deployment sequence. So, for want of a nail—or in this case, a proper-lengthed cable--NASA ended up with a wrinkled rocket, an altitude record it really didn't want, and egg on its face.

The next effort, MR-1A, involved a Frankenstein's monster made up of parts cannibalized from future missions. As the capsule was undamaged, it was mated with the escape tower from spacecraft number 8, and the antenna fairing from number 10, and seated atop a new booster, MR-3. The MR-1 booster was shipped back to the Huntsville shop and now receives visitors at the Marshall Space Flight Center.

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Some good news in Earth Security

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: ,

Looks like we may not be in as much danger as we thought.

NEOWISE observations indicate that there are at least 40 percent fewer near-Earth asteroids in total that are larger than 330 feet, or 100 meters. Our solar system's four inner planets are shown in green, and our sun is in the center. Each red dot represents one asteroid. Object sizes are not to scale. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 1998, Congress asked NASA to map the skies and determine just how many asteroids that could wreck havoc--from Armageddon to "Downtown is now a crater--news at 11."  This means asteroids roughly 330 meters in size and spanning as far as the asteroid belt.  the result id good news for the Earth...and not-so good news for Hollywood or Armageddon alarmists.  The estimate of asteroids that could destroy our home has been cut significantly:  from 35,000 to about 19,500.

The main reason:  we can judge sizes better in infrared, which is what NASA is using in its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer.  Using infrafre rather than visible light, we can get a better idea of the size of an object because it doesn't depend on how well the object reflects light.  A material's ability to reflect light is it's albedo.  As you can see from this image, a small object with a high albedo looks as bright as a big object with a low albedo.  In infrared, however, the size is more apparent.
So the number of wreck-your-world asteroids is cut.  Does that help us?  Perhaps, in that we can more easily track them.  Of the large asteroids, 981 have been found, and we're tracking 911 already, for example.

Of course, the real question is, should we see one heading our way, what can we do?  At least we know the chances of that happening are smaller.  None of the large planet-killers should be heading our way for a few centuries, according to NASA, so we have some breathing time.


Full article here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/news/wise20110929.html

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Watching the Space Race: An Orb in Space

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , , ,

by Walt Staples


I must admit to a disgusting family trait—we're morning people. I was actually awake and alert when I saw the balloon floating in space that warm August 1960 morning. I was up at my usual 05:00, had eaten breakfast (found the dinosaur in the cereal box—same one as in the last three), and was waiting for Sunrise Semester to come on TV. The Friday before, a photo of a huge silver balloon in a hanger was shown on NBC's Huntley and Brinkley (I forget which one did the story). Across the front was “N.A.S.A.” in equally huge letters—they didn't lose the periods until years later. According to the report, a radio signal had been bounced off the balloon, Echo 1. Standing in the darkness of our backyard, I watched the horizon over the small pine thicket. After some 15 or 20 minutes, a bright point of light, about the magnitude of Aldebaran (0.87) crawled into sight. I watched until it disappeared over the ridge of Colonel Coon's roof across the street. Then I went back in and watched part whatever of a lecture on the Peloponnesian War—I think—before getting ready for the bus to summer day camp.

                                                                        *

Project Echo involved the launching of a self-inflating mylar balloon into LEO (Low Earth Orbit—100 to 1,240 miles/160 to 2000 km). Upon reaching orbit, the balloon would inflate and ground stations would send microwave signals to it, and the signals would be reflected back to another ground station.

What is referred to as Echo 1 was actually Echo 1A. The original Echo 1 was lost on 13 May 1960 when the Air Force Thor-Delta lofting it missed orbit because the attitude control of its upper stage went sour. Not a way for a launch vehicle to impress on its debut flight. At 09:39 GMT, on 12 August 1960, another Thor-Delta got 'er done and put the latest incarnation of Echo 1 into orbit. (That day in August 1960 was a particularly hazardous day for birds. At 13:00 GMT, an Air Force Atlas suborbital test was also launched from Cape Canaveral; followed at 18:28 GMT by a test of the Polaris submarine-launched missile by the Navy from their end of the Cape. Meanwhile, the Air Force was launching a Kiva-Hopi sounding rocket from the Pacific Missile Range on California's Point Arguello*. On the other side of the world, the Soviets were test-firing a R-12 Dvina medium range ballistic missile from what would later be renamed “Baikonur Cosmodrome,” Kapustin Yar.)

Once in orbit, the balloon inflated to its full 100 foot (30.5 meter) diameter. A signal was sent up to it from JPL in Pasadena and bounced down to the Bell Laboratories in Homdel, New Jersey. Echo 1's silver surface was used to bounce TV, radio, and transcontinental and intercontinental telephone signals. Because of its large sail-area and tiny mass—about 90 pounds (180 kilos)--the solar wind had a noticeable effect on it. The larger Echo 2 (135 feet/41.1 meters) was successfully orbited aboard a Thor-Agena on 25 January 1964. Echo 1 reentered on 24 May 1968, while its sibling deorbited on 7 June 1969.

What was not mentioned at the time was another part of the missions. The pair of balloons were used to more accurately fix the location of Moscow to aid in targeting for ICBMs.

I remember standing in line at the East Springfield, Virginia, Post Office that December so that I could buy the commemorative First Class stamp the Post Office had issued on 15 December. First Class postage at the time was a whopping four cents—something my father grumped about quite regularly (the year before, it had skyrocketed from three cents).


* Another thing of interest about Point Arguello is that in 1923, seven U.S. Navy destroyers (part of a 14 ship formation on a speed run from San Francisco to San Diego) piled into the point at flank speed in fog. 23 crewmen were lost in the sinkings.

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Posted by Karina Fabian

Here's you chance to be an astronaut!

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , ,

Serioiusly!  NASA has opened up applications for astronauts.  Get the details here:  http://astronauts.nasa.gov/.


You have until January 27, so brush up those resume's now.

There's no guarantee that as an astronaut, you'll actually go into space.  Instead, you get to go around doing PR work for NASA, along with lots of ground-based work.  In fact, do you know what they call astronauts who never get off the Earth?
Incidentally, people will be applying via the military as well.  Rob's already getting the forms from the manpower folks. He wants to be the next Fabian in Space.

Not a penguin.
Me, I'm fine on terra firma.

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Posted by Karina Fabian

NASA Mars rover "Curiosity" launched Nov 26!

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As I'm sure most of you know, NASA had a successful launch of the Mars Rover, Curiosity, and it is on its way to the Red Planet.  It's a bit of bright news in light of the troubled launch of the Russian probe, Phobos-Grunt, which was supposed to check out one of the moons.  (They were able to briefly contact the probe from an Australia station last week, though, and have hopes of getting it moving again.  Incidentally, Russia is now thinking that maybe they could hitch a ride with us or Europe next time.  Let's hope we'd give them good luck and not get their bad.)

Curiosity will land on August 5 or 6, 2012, and have a Martian-year-long mission, about 98 Earth weeks.  It's main purpose is the look for life or the possibility of life--either indigenous or supporting human colonization.  It has 10 instruments to study the land and the atmosphere, with four objectives (taken from the NASA press package):

The mission has four primary science objectives to meet NASA’s overall habitability assessment goal:
• Assess the biological potential of at least one target environment by determining the nature and inventory of organic carbon compounds, searching for the chemical building blocks of life and identifying features that may record the actions of biologically
relevant processes.

• Characterize the geology of the rover’s field site at all appropriate spatial scales by investigating the chemical, isotopic and mineralogical composition of surface and near-surface materials and interpreting the processes that have formed rocks and soils.

• Investigate planetary processes of relevance to past habitability (including the role of water) by assessing the long timescale atmospheric evolution and determining the present state, distribution and cycling of water and carbon dioxide.
• Characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation, including galactic cosmic radiation, solar proton events and secondary neutrons.
Curiosity will not be looking for life itself.  It's not equipped to detect biological processes or to analyze (or recognize) fossils.  (Though I imagine that if it were to photograph some, there'll be some people screaming about it at NASA/JPL!)

Curiosity will be tooling around the Gale Crater, which was chosen after looking at over 30 different sites and years of debate.  This video gives the reasons why they selected it.

Congratulations, NASA and good luck, Curiosity!

For more reading:  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/MSLLaunch.pdf
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-laboratory.pdf

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Posted by Karina Fabian

SpaceX Meets Next Milestone for Manned Space Flight

Posted by Karina Fabian | Labels: , , ,

Big congrats to SpaceX for getting NASA approval on its launch abort system for the Dragon manned capsule!

The launch abort system gives the astronauts an "abandon spaceship" option should there be a problem during launch.  The Apollo capsules had one; the shuttles did not.  NASA is requiring that all manned capsules in its COTS program have such a system, and with good reason.



The nice thing about the Dragon's abort system is that it works from launch to orbit, which is better than ever done before.  Basically, the capsule itself is the escape system, so if something goes wrong with the big candle it's sitting on, they can disengage from the rocket.  However, if things go smoothly, those same engines will give them a nice soft landing on Earth or whatever celestial body they choose.

This was the next stage in their preparation to send astronauts to the International Space Station, as well as other venues, such as Mars (which is founder Elon Musk's eventual goal) or other stations.  What I've not been able to find online is a timeline for when the new system will be manufactured and put to practical tests.  So far, NASA has only approved the designs, which is an important step, but just one.  I think the goal is 2015; I'm hoping they can do it earlier than that, but there's a lot to consider, including government bureaucracy.

From Popular Mechanics, which awarded them a breakthrough award.


One thing I'm hoping, is that the different space industries are talking about standardizing airlocks.  this about what a pain and expense that will be if everyone's is just different enough that other ships won't fit.

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Posted by Karina Fabian
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