Special space access
One of the largest buildings in the world is opening its doors to the public, and those lucky enough to enter may see a space shuttle orbiter being prepared for retirement.
Starting next month, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida will be offering a new tour called KSC Up-Close that will include a visit inside the Vehicle Assembly Building.
"This is a very special and unique opportunity," says John Stine, KSC Visitor Complex director of sales and marketing. "(The VAB) has been closed for over 30 years."
Open only to NASA employees and a select few, this 525-foot-tall building was originally built as the assembly location for Apollo/Saturn vehicles. During the space shuttle program it was the location where the shuttle orbiter was mated to the external tank and solid rocket boosters.
"With the end of the shuttle program and as a prelude to the next phase of manned space flight, we have the opportunity to gain access to the building for a very limited period of time," says Stine.
Stine makes no promises that guests will see an orbiter, but he says that space shuttle Endeavour will be in the VAB indefinitely. "It's a great bonus to come in, not only to be in awe of the inside of this facility," he says, "but then seeing Endeavour being prepared for its trip out West."
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21 Lutetia: Not an everyday asteroid
Most asteroids are known to be fragments of parent asteroids or rubble piles, but the asteroid known as 21 Lutetia appears to be neither of those things.
Three articles in this week's Science come to similar conclusions: Data from the European Space Agency's Rosetta craft show that 21 Lutetia is more like a planetesimal, or a planet-precursor, than an asteroid. Planetesimals are important because they can provide information about the formation of the Solar System.
What makes 21 Lutetia unique? Researchers using OSIRIS, the Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System, studied the asteroid's surface and determined that it's covered in a thick layer of regolith, or loose surface material. The regolith flows across the surface of the asteroid in landslides.
Another team of scientists used radio-tracking to calculate the mass of 21 Lutetia, and determined that the density of the asteroid is about 212 pounds per cubic foot - one of the highest densities for an asteroid.
A third team of researchers used VIRTIS, the Visible, Infrared and Thermal Imaging Spectrometer, carried by Rosetta to measure the temperature and composition of the asteroid. 21 Lutetia appears to have a max surface temperature of 254 degrees Kelvin, without any evidence of space weathering or aqueous processes.
These three articles are likely just the beginning, as the uniqueness of the asteroid means it'll probably be studied further.
NEEMO 15 surfaces early
Hurricanes have been known to damage not only environments but also best-laid plans, including NASA's NEEMO 15 mission. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which runs the Aquarius habitat that serves as home base for the mission, concluded this week that Hurricane Rina's projected path posed too great a danger to the safety of the crew and mission in progress off the coast of Key Largo, Florida.
NEEMO, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, uses Aquarius to simulate some of the challenges of working in space, according to the NEEMO website. Crews spend up to three weeks at a time living and working in the undersea station.
The six aquanauts - Shannon Walker, Takuya Onishi, David Saint-Jacques, Steven Squyres, James Talacek, and Nate Bender - surfaced Wednesday morning after completing five days of the NEEMO 15 mission. While their stay on Aquarius was cut short, the crew still completed a substantial amount of work. Among the tasks completed were six underwater "spacewalks," a full day of research inside the habitat, and four full days of simulated exploration of an asteroid.
The rest of this NEEMO mission won't be rescheduled, but we can look forward to NEEMO 16, currently set for the summer of 2012.
To learn more about NEEMO 15, you can check out its NASA page, its Flickr stream, or its Twitter feed.
NASA's Terra Spacecraft Sees Thailand Flooding
"Since July 2011, heavy monsoon rains in southeast Asia have resulted in catastrophic flooding. In Thailand, about one third of all provinces are affected. On Oct. 23, 2011, when this image from ASTER, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft was acquired, flood waters were approaching the capital city of Bangkok as the Ayutthaya River overflowed its banks. In this image, vegetation is displayed in red, and flooded areas are black and dark blue. Brighter blue shows sediment-laden water, and gray areas are houses, buildings and roads. The image covers an area of 35.2 by 66.3 miles (56.7 by 106.9 kilometers) and is located at 14.5 degrees north latitude, 100.5 degrees east longitude.
With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched Dec. 18, 1999, on Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and data products. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change."
Source: NASA
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