Few Words from Astronaut Joe Acaba

Our time of solitude is rapidly coming to an end.  Our new crew mates successfully launched very early this morning.  With the 2 days they spend in autonomous flight to reach us, they will arrive around 4 am on July 17.  All of the preparations have been made for their arrival.  Since it was not too long ago that I arrived, I clearly remember those first few days on the ISS.  While the traditional hatch opening and having the opportunity to talk with family and friends that made the trip to Russia are wonderful experiences, I remember being tired and wanting desperately to take a “bath” and put on some regular clean clothes.  While we do have facilities on the Soyuz and lots of opportunities to take cat naps, it sure was nice to be home on the relatively spacious Space Station.  While all of the new crew members have been here before, we will do all we can to make the transition as comfortable as possible.  For Gennady, Sergey and I, we will begin another sleep shift tomorrow.  We will wake up at our normal time of 6 am and are scheduled to go to sleep at 3:30 pm with a wake up at midnight.  The day of docking is a long day for all of the crews and we will be back to a normal schedule on Wednesday.  As I mentioned previously, HTV will be arriving 10 days later so we will all hit the road running.

Knowing what Gennady is ahead, Sergey and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.  While some work had to be done, overall it was an opportunity for us to recharge our personal batteries and just enjoy the time.  We were rewarded with the results of the recent solar activity – the southern lights.  I remember seeing the auroras during my Shuttle flight and I thought it was the coolest thing.  Then I arrived this time and Don Pettit showed me the auroras and they were much, much better than what I seen previously.  I was happy as could be.  Then on Saturday, I was working out and in between sets I saw that we were heading south during a night pass.  So I decided my workout could be postponed for a few minutes and I turned out all of the lights in Node 3.  Within a couple of minutes, I could not believe what I was seeing.  It was absolutely incredible.  I enjoyed the show for a few minutes and then felt I had to inform my crew mates so they could also take in the view.  Even Gennady, with all of his time on orbit, was amazed.  I am no expert with a camera but I tried to capture at least a small reminder of the experience.  The pictures were not great, but they would do.  So today, at around the same time of day, I thought I would take one more look.  Just when you think it can’t get much better, it gets way better.  I of course took some obligatory pictures, but then I just sat in the dark, in the peace and quiet of this incredible man made, orbiting laboratory and just looked out the window in awe.  What a truly magnificent planet we live on and solar system we live in.  I could not have asked for a better way to mark the middle of my Expedition and to start what will be a challenging and rewarding time on the International Space Station.

Keywords – Few words from Astronaut Joe Acaba in Expedition 32, crew mates in International Space Station, Orbiting laboratory, rewarding time on the International Space Station.

New Instrument Sifts Starlight for New Worlds

An advanced telescope imaging system that started taking data in June 2012 is the first of its kind capable of spotting planets orbiting suns outside of our solar system. The collaborative set of high-tech instrumentation and software, called Project 1640, is now operating on the Hale telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, after more than six years of development.

Researchers and engineers behind the project come from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, N.Y., the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena.

The project's first images demonstrate a new technique that creates extremely precise "dark holes" around stars of interest. These dark holes allow researchers to spot planets.

"The more we learn about them, the more we realize how vastly different planetary systems can be from our own," said Gautam Vasisht of JPL. "All indications point to a tremendous diversity of planetary systems, far beyond what was imagined just 10 years ago. We are on the verge of an incredibly rich new field."

Keywords – New Instrument Sifts Starlight for New Worlds, Palomar Observatory near San Diego, American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Earth-Observing Camera to Launch to International Space Station

A remote-controlled Earth-observing camera system called ISERV will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's third H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) this week. Once installed, the system will be directed by researchers on the ground to acquire imagery of specific areas of the globe for disaster analysis and environmental studies. 

ISERV Pathfinder is a new imaging instrument designed and built at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The HTV-3 launch is scheduled for 10:06 p.m. EDT July 20 from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. 

ISERV stands for the International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System. The space station provides researchers a unique perspective through global observations from space. SERVIR is a Spanish acronym meaning "to serve." Also known as the Regional Visualization and Monitoring System, the program provides satellite data and tools to environmental decision makers in developing countries. SERVIR is a partnership between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). 

ISERV will be installed in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) in the station's Destiny laboratory. The system is intended to help scientists gain operational experience and expertise and inform the design of a more capable system in the future. Ideally, a future operational system will be able to monitor disasters on Earth. 

Keywords – Earth Observing Camera to Launch to International Space Station, ISERV Pathfinder, HTV-3 launch, Tanegashima Space Center, SERVIR Environmental Research, WORF facility in station’s destiny laboratory.

A Fish Friendly Facility for the International Space Station

The Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, is a Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, facility that will enable the study of fish aboard the International Space Station. (JAXA) 

The above image shows an Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, specimen chamber housing Medaka fish for study. (JAXA)  

The grid structure at the upper side of each Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, aquarium captures air in each grid, while preventing water from escaping. 

Air will be injected with special syringe by the crew prior to the start of an investigation. (JAXA) 

While aquariums provide a relaxing pastime for humans on Earth, recreation is not the goal behind the new Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, aboard the International Space Station. Instead, researchers will use this unique facility to look at how microgravity impacts marine life. 

Sponsored by the Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, this habitat is a closed-water circulatory system, which provides a new  facility option for station research. Scientists will use the habitat to study small, freshwater fish on orbit. For the first investigations, they plan to examine the Medaka (Oryzias latipes) fish. 

Scientists have multiple studies planned to look at the impacts of radiation, bone degradation, muscle atrophy, and developmental biology. The investigations could last up to 90 days and provide data that may lead to a better understanding of related human health concerns here on Earth. 

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Progress Re-dock Postponed Crew Conducts Science

Flight Engineer of Expedition 32 Joe Acaba began his workday Tuesday collecting blood and urine samples and storing them in the Minus Eighty Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS, or MELFI, for later analysis back on Earth. Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide assisted Acaba with that blood draw. 

Acaba also collected environment samples to make sure that the air they breathe and the water they drink aboard station remain safe and clean.

Acaba later assisted Flight Engineer Suni Williams with the Integrated Cardiovascular which measures the atrophy of the heart muscle that appears to develop during long-duration spaceflight.

Investigators use the data from these tests to develop countermeasures to keep the crew healthy. The research also may have benefits for people on Earth with heart problems.

Williams spent part of her day setting up a computer for Friday’s grapple and berthing of HTV3, also known as Kounotori3, or “white stork.” The Japanese cargo craft will be commanded to fly within about 40 feet while Acaba and Hoshide use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to grapple the vehicle and berth it to a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node.

Williams also conducted an ultrasound scan on herself to provide data for the Vessel Imaging experiment, which studies changes in blood vessel wall properties during and after long-duration spaceflight.

Hoshide installed a cooling fan in the Japanese Kibo module and later participated in a session with the Integrated Cardiovascular experiment.

Commander Gennady Padalka conducted some tests through the space-to-ground communication system while Flight Engineer Sergei Revin performed routine maintenance on the SOZh life-support system in the Russian segment of the station. The third Russian crew member, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, familiarized himself with the onboard computer network and replaced a Russian laptop computer. 

Keywords – crew conducts science, Williams conduct ultrasound scan on herself, Flight engineer Joe Acaba.

Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt

For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.

On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.

Researchers have not yet determined whether this extensive melt event will affect the overall volume of ice loss this summer and contribute to sea level rise.

Keywords – Satellites see unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface melt, sea level rice, Greenland, NASA and university scientists.

Sally Ride Passes Away NASA Offers Condolence

Sally ride was the first American women on space. She was landed in the year 1983. Ride died today in the La Jolla, calif. She was suffering from pancreatic cancer for 17 months. Her age was 61.

She had completed degrees in English and physics and she was on the way to the PhD in Physics at the Stanford University. Ride also went back to space in the year 1984 an after that she was assigned to another mission but this program has shuttle because of the disaster in the year 1986. 

 

The NASA Company has allowed ride to “pursue her long time goal of motivating the students, girls, and young women to study in detail about maths, science and technology. Crippen said that “She proved that young women would do anything they wanted to do”. 

The NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Graver said that “Sally was a personal and professional model role model to me and thousands of women allover the world. 

Keywords: Sally Ride passes away, first American women, pancreatic cancer, young women to study, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Graver, personal and professional model

Top Nasa Official Dies At 81

A retired Air force general who  played a major role in the development of military spy  satellites and MX intercontinental missile system before it being appointed by the Kennedy space center that is not long after the process of the space shuttle challenger explorer in Tuesday he was 81.He was affected by the disease cancer said by his daughter.

Neli Sheehan said that “He played a key role in getting the first reconnaissance satellites into space”. In the year 1970 he became the director of the project that is being developed by the naval vessels and air planes to get communicated by the satellites.

Forrest Streplin father is an electrical contractor and her mother is a school teacher. He was graduated from the gulf coast military academy and also completed his master’s degree in nuclear engineering. He got his major in weapons technology.

Keywords:  Forrest Strepli, electrical contractor,school teacher,ompleted his master’s degree in nuclear engineering,military spy  satellites and MX intercontinental missile system.

NASA Includes The Two Innovators On Waste Management

The US space agency in NASA has included 2 innovators for the conference about the waste management.  This will help to identify  and also accelerate the solutions in the waste management that w ill make the immediate issue of the astronauts to abroad  the international space station that will make people around the world.

NASA said that innovators that will be chosen from the forums because of the ground breaking technologies and programs that will be addressed by the broad range of waste issues that includes the waste to energy .In this during the three day forum the Launch innovators will be discussed by the pressing business and program issues be with the launch council members.

 It will also represent the business, waste management, policy, engineering, communications, science, investments. For this the NASA will launch parallels between resource challenges and human face abroad the space station and also in the earth. NASA Said that with no natural resources, in the best hostile environment of space, astronauts must generate, collect, store, recycle, conserve and manage eth resources widely. 

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Sun That Sends The Solar Flare

CME can send the solar particles on earth and can reach the earth on one to three days by affecting the electronic systems in the satellite which is on the ground. This CME will not be headed towards the earth but it will impact the STEREO-A.

In this the sun have been emitting with the solar level in the mid way. The solar flares are the huge bursting of radiation that cannot be passed through the Earth’s atmosphere that will harm the human on the ground. These flares are classified into M7.7 flare.

In this we can understand it is very weaker than the largest flare. In this the M- class flares can cause the most radio communications that will be blackouts at the poles.

 The sun standard will be in about 11 year activity by which it will be ramping over the solar system that is expected to be in the year of 2013.

Keywords:  CME will not be headed towards the earth,in the year of 2013, Earth’s atmosphere that will harm the human,M- class flares can cause the most radio communications

Mars Odyssey To Recover From The Recent Glitch

 The Mars Spacecraft in the orbit around the mars gets slowly it gets bounced back in the malfunction suffered last month but in the same way the managers  expect the orbiter to make the full recovery agency  said by the officials. 

In June it was in early the odyssey orbiter have lost three wheels in which it is helpful to get control of the probes attitude. And also the orientation in space without needing the fire thrusters. 

In July 11 the maneuver will adjust the orbit in which this odyssey will be placed by the precautionary safe mode. Guy Webster said that “It’s out of safe mode and they‘re adding science observations and functions a day  at  a  time,  in the process of getting it  back to full  operations. 

He is the spokesman at NASA’s Jet Population Laboratory. Gaylon Mc Smith said that “We are on a cautious path to resume Odyssey’s science and relay operations soon”. 

Keywords:  maneuver will adjust the orbit,NASA’s Jet Population Laboratory,early the odyssey orbiter have lost three wheels, orientation in space without needing the fire thrusters.

Spitzer finds Exoplanet smaller than Earth

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is a planet two-thirds the size of Earth. The exoplanet candidate, called UCF-1.01, is located a mere 33 light-years away, making it possibly the nearest world to our solar system that is smaller than our home planet.

Exoplanets circle stars beyond our sun. Only a handful smaller than Earth have been found so far. Spitzer has performed transit studies on known exoplanets, but UCF-1.01 is the first ever identified with the space telescope, pointing to a possible role for Spitzer in helping discover potentially habitable, terrestrial-sized worlds.

"We have found strong evidence for a very small, very hot and very near planet with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope," said Kevin Stevenson from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Stevenson is lead author of the paper, which has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. "Identifying nearby small planets such as UCF-1.01 may one day lead to their characterization using future instruments."

The hot, new-planet candidate was found unexpectedly in Spitzer observations. 

Stevenson and his colleagues were studying the Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b, already known to exist around the red-dwarf star GJ 436. In the Spitzer data, the astronomers noticed slight dips in the amount of infrared light streaming from the star, separate from the dips caused by GJ 436b. A review of Spitzer archival data showed the dips were periodic, suggesting a second planet might be orbiting the star and blocking out a small fraction of the star's light.

This technique, used by a number of observatories including NASA's Kepler space telescope, relies on transits to detect exoplanets. The duration of a transit and the small decrease in the amount of light registered reveals basic properties of an exoplanet, such as its size and distance from its star. In UCF-1.01's case, its diameter would be approximately 5,200 miles (8,400 kilometers), or two-thirds that of Earth. UCF-1.01 would revolve quite tightly around GJ 436, at about seven times the distance of Earth from the moon, with its "year" lasting only 1.4 Earth days. Given this proximity to its star, far closer than the planet Mercury is to our sun, the exoplanet's surface temperature would be more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (almost 600 degrees Celsius).

If the roasted, diminutive planet candidate ever had an atmosphere, it almost surely has evaporated. UCF-1.01 might therefore resemble a cratered, mostly geologically dead world like Mercury. Paper co-author Joseph Harrington, also of the University of Central Florida and principal investigator of the research, suggested another possibility; that the extreme heat of orbiting so close to GJ 436 has melted the exoplanet's surface.

"The planet could even be covered in magma," Harrington said. In addition to UCF-1.01, Stevenson and his colleagues noticed hints of a third planet, dubbed UCF-1.02, orbiting GJ 436. Spitzer has observed evidence of the two new planets several times each. However, even the most sensitive instruments are unable to measure exoplanet masses as small as UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02, which are perhaps only one-third the mass of Earth. Knowing the mass is required for confirming a discovery, so the paper authors are cautiously calling both bodies exoplanet candidates for now.

Of the approximately 1,800 stars identified by NASA' Kepler space telescope as candidates for having planetary systems, just three are verified to contain sub-Earth-sized exoplanets. Of these, only one exoplanet is thought to be smaller than the Spitzer candidates, with a radius similar to Mars, or 57 percent that of Earth.

"I hope future observations will confirm these exciting results, which show Spitzer may be able to discover exoplanets as small as Mars," said Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Even after almost nine years in space, Spitzer's observations continue to take us in new and important scientific directions."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Keywords - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, UCF-1.01, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA' Kepler space telescope, Spitzer finds Exoplanet, Neptune-sized exoplanet GJ 436b.