This Week at NASA...
As the 1.7-mile-long asteroid 1998 QE2 began its relatively close flyby of Earth, telescope
images were provided during a live broadcast from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, seen on
NASA Television and nasa.gov.
Among the insight provided from asteroid experts at JPL and the Goldstone Deep Space Communications
Complex, which used radar to track and image the asteroid -- a discovery that QE2 has an
orbiting moon about 600 meters wide.
The program also featured NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who discussed the agency's
role in keeping the planet safe from asteroids and other Near Earth Objects.
"These are not National threats, these are global threats.
That's why the asteroid strategy and the second segment of actually -- an effort to redirect
an asteroid is so, so important."
The May 31 QE2 fly-by -- some 3-point-6 million miles from Earth is asteroid's the closest
approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries.
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver participated in a "We the Geeks" Google+ Hangout on the
White House website.
Garver and others who hung out discussed asteroid identification, characterization, resource
utilization, and hazard mitigation.
"We need to not only understand them but be able to go to them and learn how to manipulate
them.
The President outlined on the long-term human strategy to Mars that asteroids would be our
next step."
NASA recently announced plans to find, study, capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration
by astronauts.
The asteroid initiative is a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities while accelerating
efforts to improve detection and characterization of asteroids.
Measurements taken by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission as it delivered the
Curiosity rover to the Red Planet in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs
for designing systems to protect astronauts from radiation exposure on future deep-space
expeditions.
MSL's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation
environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential
human exploration spacecraft.
The findings will reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of radiation shielding and
help space mission designers better protect astronauts on future deep space missions.
NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot visited the Marshall Space Flight Center recently
to discuss the future of human space exploration and the critical role the Marshall workforce
plays in development of the Space Launch System -- the agency's new heavy lift rocket that
will take humans farther into space than ever before.
And during a visit to Langley Research Center, Lightfoot toured several facilities, including
the materials research lab.
Langley and the agency are looking at additive manufacturing techniques as a way for astronauts
in space to potentially create materials and parts needed for their spacecraft.
Associate Administrator for Space Technology Mike Gazarik hosted a Town Hall meeting from
NASA Headquarters to provide agency employees with an overview of the new Space Technology
mission directorate and discuss plans for the upcoming year.
"There are a number of technologies that can really help our industry if we, the government
can take some risks and show that the technologies can solve the problems that need to be solved.
These are tough challenges.
That's kind of what we're about."
The Space Technology Mission Directorate is responsible for developing the crosscutting,
pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current
and future missions.
NASA's Operation IceBridge has completed another successful data-collecting campaign in the
Arctic.
Researchers aboard the P-3B airborne laboratory gathered new information on ice elevation
and thickness in and around Greenland and the Arctic Ocean.
The data will help improve computer models of changing Arctic ice.
Managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, the six-year IceBridge mission is bridging the
gap between NASA's ICESat satellite which stopped working in 2009 and ICESat-2 -- set
to launch in 2016.
During a recent visit to NASA Ames, Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld received
a progress update on the Center's science projects, including the LADEE Mission, scheduled
to launch later this year to study the thin atmosphere around the Moon.
Grunsfeld also was a featured speaker at the Bay Area Maker Faire in nearby San Mateo,
California.
"I'm here at Maker Faire, gave a short talk, but most of the time I'm walking around, watching
people and looking at all the great stuff that's here.
And it's almost overwhelming, even for an astronaut...that there are so many great ideas
out there."
The festival is a celebration of invention, creativity and resourcefulness where "makers"
show off their inventions and to share knowledge.
On May 31, 2012, the successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean of the SpaceX Dragon
capsule marked the completion of the first U.S. commercial spaceflight to the International
Space Station.
During the mission, Dragon demonstrated its ability to maneuver in orbit, safely approach
the space station and be grappled and berthed to the orbiting laboratory.
Just over four months later, SpaceX, again launched a Dragon stocked with cargo on CRS-1,
the first ever commercial cargo resupply flight to the ISS -- the flight signaled the return
of America's capability to independently resupply the orbiting laboratory -- a feat not achievable
since the retirement of the space shuttle.
And that's This Week @NASA.
For more on these and other stories, or to follow us on UStream, Flickr and other social
media, log on to www.nasa.gov.