“Here’s some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!”
“And liftoff of OSIRIS REx ...”
On Sept. 8, NASA launched the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security
- Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
OSIRIS-REx, the first U.S. mission to sample an asteroid, is scheduled to arrive at near-Earth
asteroid Bennu in 2018.
Mission plans call for the spacecraft to survey the asteroid, retrieve a small sample from
its surface, and return the sample to Earth for study in 2023.
Analysis of that sample is expected to reveal clues about the history of Bennu over the
past 4.5 billion years, as well as clues about the evolution of our solar system.
Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams of NASA closed out a record-breaking tour aboard the
International Space Station when he and cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka of the
Russian space agency Roscomos departed the station on Sept. 6.
This was the end of Williams’ third long-duration tour aboard the station and upped his total
number of days in space to 534 – both are records for an American astronaut.
The crew landed safely several hours later in Kazakhstan after spending 172 days conducting
research aboard the station.
Meanwhile, the next crew headed to the ISS – Expedition 49-50, which includes NASA’s
Shane Kimbrough, continues its pre-launch activities.
Kimbrough, cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko, and members of the back-up
crew participated in traditional ceremonies in Star City, Russia on Sept. 8.
Afterward, they departed for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to complete final
training for the launch of Kimbrough, Ryzhikov and Borisenko on Sept. 23 Eastern Time for
a five-month mission on the International Space Station.
For the second year in a row, a team of engineering students from West Virginia University won
the Level 2 competition of NASA’s Sample Return Robot Challenge at Worcester Polytechnic
Institute, in Massachusetts.
The team earned $750,000 in prize money by successfully navigating its robot to retrieve
the most simulated samples in the timed competition.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was on hand to congratulate the team.
The annual event provides an opportunity for citizens to help NASA address problems that
might be encountered on future deep space exploration missions.
An update on NASA’s future all-electric X-57 aircraft named “Maxwell”.
Weeks after arriving at aerospace company, Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, the
agency’s first X-plane in a decade has reached a new milestone.
Maxwell’s wing was integrated with its fuselage, bringing the X-57 closer to its final phase-two
configuration.
Next, work on the motor mounts and battery systems will continue the process of converting
the Tecnam P2006T into NASA’s first fully electric X-plane featuring distributed electric
propulsion.
This design aims to demonstrate flight that is cruise efficient, quieter, and more environmentally
friendly – all key elements in NASA’s New Aviation Horizons initiative.
NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland highlighted new aviation ideas and technologies
during the second annual Convergent Aeronautics Solutions (CAS) Showcase on Sept. 7.
The event featured work by NASA researchers dedicated to pushing the boundaries of aviation,
and achieving new capabilities in aeronautics.
The most promising of the technologies and concepts will be considered for further development
by NASA aeronautics programs or by direct transfer to the aviation community.
And that’s what’s up this week @NASA …
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