This Week at NASA…
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are in for a treat.”
NASA Television helped observe the last transit of
Venus we’ll see here on Earth until 2117 by showcasing
live-streaming Websites the world over, including
observations made by scientists in central Australia…
“There’s a few clouds in the sky and we are set up for an
absolutely gorgeous first and second contact.”
…and by the NASA Edge team, stationed
atop the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.
“I’m not going to look until I put my blinders down …
and now, of course I can’t see anything.”
Scientists at NASA Headquarters also provided information and
insight about this rare yet predictable celestial
phenomenon that has captivated humankind for millennia.
“From a perspective of wanting to know about our solar system,
here’s an occurrence like an eclipse that’s very rare and of
course it attracts our natural interest in looking at these
wondering objects and where they go and in this case
Venus is going to cross in front of the Sun.”
“If I could actually dream, 105 years, 117 years from now,
I wouldn’t think about a transit of Venus. What do you
think about transit of Earth as seen from Mars.”
And NASA helped provide some unique images … this is
how the transit appeared to astronaut Don Pettit from
his vantage point onboard the International Space Station.
And NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured the
entire transit in stunning “greater-than-HD resolution”.
Several NASA centers hosted public transit-viewing parties. At
the Ames Research Center, close to 6,000 people came to watch
the sky – and broadcast, plus ask questions of
Kepler mission and planetary scientists.
No matter where they were – those who witnessed the Transit
were treated to a last-in-our lifetime event.
Hi I’m Gay Yee Hill at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California. About a half dozen of our JPLers have
brought in their own personal telescopes equipped with solar
filters so they can share this once in a lifetime event with
some of their co-workers and also people who live in the neighborhood.
“I saw the Sun but I saw this tiny black dot but I couldn’t see
it at first but then I looked closer and then I saw
the tiny black dot and I knew that was Venus.”
“What surprised me about it most was the fact that, I guess
that I was able to see it in my lifetime.”
“Are you going to tell your grandkids about this?”
“Assuming I have any.”
“It’s really cool you can see it through this and if you can
look closely there’s like a really, really extremely tiny black dot, which is Venus.
If you missed this one, that’s OK. There’s another one coming,
unfortunately it’s 105 years away, so you can understand why
these kids are stoked that they just witnessed something
that happens just once in a lifetime.
As NASA joined the world to witness the Venus Transit, officials
at the Glenn Research Center hosted media representatives to
learn about and see some of the capabilities developed to pave the
way for future robotic missions to Venus. The event began in a
lab where engineers rapidly create various space exploration concepts,
some of which involve flying in the Venus sky. Glenn researchers
summarized Glenn’s capabilities for future Venus missions and gave
a briefing on what a Venus rover could look like. They also talked
about their excitement in observing the Venus Transit and working
with scientists around the world to better understand what happens
on Venus and what that may mean for us here on Earth.
“The climate models that we currently use on Earth only have Earth
as a set of data to validate. Venus will provide a new set of
validation that will allow us to improve our weather prediction capabilities.”
Reporters also toured Glenn’s new Extreme Environment Rig that
will simulate harsh environments of planets like Venus.
This rig is the largest of its kind in the world.
“This extreme environments rig truly is an extreme environments
rig, it can handle harsh high pressure, high temperature but also
conditions such as on Titan where it’s cold and yet pressurized and
some of the new planets that are being discovered such as exoplanets
that are a little larger than Earth, but have very similar conditions to Venus.”
“One of the areas that we’re working is a seismometer that can
measure the vibrations on the Venus surface. This seismometer
is meant to be able to withstand harsh environments of Venus
and actually operate on the Venus surface.”
A little more than a month after arriving at New York’s JFK
Airport atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft …
Space Shuttle Enterprise concluded its voyage when NASA’s first
space shuttle made its much anticipated arrival, by way of barge
on the Hudson River to its new home -- The Intrepid Sea, Air and
Space Museum. Enterprise will be on exhibit to the public beginning
July 19th in a temporary climate-controlled pavilion. Intrepid
continues work on a permanent exhibit facility to showcase
Enterprise and enhance the museum’s space-related
exhibits and education curriculum.
To celebrate 100-years of the Girl Scouts, NASA helped the
organization “Rock the National Mall” by hosting an event
at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Scouts were treated to an engaging program that included
hands-on activities to learn about aeronautics, science, and exploration.
They also learned about NASA’s missions and careers from special guests
that included former NASA astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and
Pam Melroy, and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.
“The organization, The Girl Scouts, strives to teach girls self
reliance and resourcefulness. It also encourages girls to seek
fulfillment in the professional world and become active citizens
in their communities. In my experience there are no better
skills than those to prepare you for the future.”
“It was great talking to a group of Girls Scouts, telling
them all about the things, the neat stuff you can do with
math and science. Whether it’s in the Navy fixing ships or
flying in space and building a space station.”
This long tube shape may not look like a spacecraft to most
people. But something like it may someday take instruments
to Mars or return cargo to Earth. Packed into its restraining
bag is IRVE-3, the Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment,
developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
It is designed to demonstrate that inflatable spacecraft are feasible.
“It’s very challenging to try to develop an inflatable spacecraft.
You have to use materials that do not mind being packed down
into a small volume for launch and then unfolded up to their
full size. So we use fabrics whereas a traditional rigid heatshield
would be more of a solid material that doesn’t fold.”
IRVE-3 is scheduled to launch from a sounding rocket at Wallops
Flight Facility, also in Virginia– much like its predecessor IRVE II
did in 2009. But first the hardware and software has had to go
through a series of tests – including a visit to the shaker table.
One of the last destinations before flight – NASA Langley's
Transonic Dynamics Tunnel or TDT – to check out the
whole system – inflation and all.
“We were using the TDT for a vacuum chamber. What we do is actually
bring it down to low pressure just like it will see during reentry
to make sure this thing’s going to inflate properly. During the test
we had the pyro-initiators, which are little cutters – they don’t
explode or anything they just cut the strings. They initiated. The
bag started to unzip. It actually paused and we all got excited for
a minute and then it just paused a second and then it let go and the
rest of the bag opened up. The inflatable came out.”
That was much to the relief of the engineers, who thoroughly checked the
IRVE-3 afterwards. Also performing well during the test – the thermal
blanket, which will protect the inflatable from the forces and heat
of atmospheric entry. Now the team can only hope everything
works just as flawlessly later this year in space.
“Continue to study your math and science cause
one day we’re going to need your help.”
The Marshall Space Flight Center and Boeing teamed up at with the
city of Huntsville to share a bit of the International Space Station
with some 5000 students. Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle’s
“Book Club” provided the students with a copy of station-inspired,
“Living In Space." The club provides children from low-income
neighborhoods with books they can keep. Marshall’s Space Launch
Systems Manager Tony Lavoie (la-VOY) and Astronauts Mike Fincke
and Jack Fischer talked with students about the work being done
together by NASA and Boeing on the new SLS, and the groundbreaking
science and technology conducted aboard the ISS that continues to benefit the world.
“When I was 12 years old I decided I was going to be a writer.”
The NASA family mourns the passing of Ray Bradbury, one of our
era’s greatest and most noted science fiction/fantasy writers.
As the author of such classic works as The Martian Chronicles, The
Illustrated Man, and Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury influenced a generation
of young men and women who dared to dream of making science fiction science fact.
“The future of mankind depends upon space travel. And we’ll
get away from war. If we stay on Earth, we’ll go on having wars.
But, if we go to the moon and Mars, we’ll bind ourselves together
into one, single race, one color, and go into space and live forever.”
Ray Bradbury was 91.
One year ago on June 10, 2011, NASA's 'Age of Aquarius' dawned with
the launch of an international satellite carrying the Aquarius observatory
from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. Aquarius was designed to
take NASA’s first space-based measurements of the salinity, or
saltiness of Earth's oceans, to further our understanding of the
global water cycle and improve climate forecasts. Aquarius was
built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Goddard Space Flight Center.
And 45 years ago, on June 14, 1967 the Mariner 5 spacecraft
was launched by an Atlas-Agena D rocket from Cape Canaveral
Air Force Station towards the planet Venus.
Making its flyby on October 19 of that year with instruments
more sensitive than its predecessor, Mariner 2, Mariner 5 shed
new light on the hot, cloud-covered planet and on conditions
in interplanetary space. Its operations ended in November 1967,
Mariner 5 remains in orbit around the sun.
And that’s This Week @ NASA!
For more on these and other stories, or to follow us on Facebook,
Twitter and other social media, log on to www.nasa.gov.