Space

NASA Email Discussion of Possible Landing Gear Failure Modes

During the STS-107 mission, the review of the potential effects of the debris hit to Columbia?s left wing at ~80 seconds after liftoff resulted in a determination that there should not be any adverse affect on mission safety. On January 28, Tuesday, when the thermal analysis was completed, engineers and flight controllers at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) responsible for mechanical systems, including the landing gear system, contacted counterparts at the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to get an assessment of potential outcomes in the unlikely event that the landing gear door or wheel well was breached during the orbiter?s reentry into Earth?s atmosphere.

The interchange is typical of what takes place during a mission. Often, the broader NASA community is involved in evaluating potential issues. The Langley engineer identified no new concerns or failure conditions that had not previously been examined by Johnson engineers and flight controllers. For this reason, there was no reason to elevate the points raised in the discussion to the Mission Management Team.

Read Email Exchange (.pdf)

Cal Team Charts History, Fate of the Universe

What time did the universe begin? When did the first star appear? How long will the universe last? A colorful, graphically rich chart that illustrates and summarizes what is now known about the history and fate of the universe has been developed by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in collaboration with the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP). More than 11,000 copies of this chart are being distributed this month through The Physics Teacher magazine to high school science teachers across the nation for field-testing with their students.

NASA to determine how much scientific data was lost

The launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia on January 16, 2003 represented an exciting time for the international research community. Columbia carried more than 80 experiments on a 16-day mission devoted entirely to science. NASA and its researchers are working to determine exactly how much data was lost with the Columbia crew. Some scientific data from Columbia was downlinked to experimental teams on Earth during the mission.

NASA satellite helps scientists see effects of earthquakes in remote areas

The unique capabilities of a NASA earth-observing satellite have allowed researchers to view the effects of a major earthquake that occurred in 2001 in Northern India near the border of Pakistan. Lead author Bernard Pinty of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability in the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy, and colleagues from the U.S., France and Germany, used the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite to observe the effects of a massive earthquake in the Gujarat province of India.

NASA Mission Control Center Status Report #21

NASA engineers continued to review data and recover debris from the Space Shuttle Columbia today as the analysis of what caused the orbiter to break up Saturday en route to landing continued. Space Shuttle Program Manager Ron Dittemore told an afternoon briefing that several teams of engineers are making progress in their study of data and video from Columbia’s launch and entry, but cautioned that it is a “massive job” requiring round-the-clock efforts to piece together the events that led to a loss of communications with the Shuttle over north central Texas 16 minutes prior to touchdown.

Instructions for Uploading Digital Evidence to NASA

For anyone who has recorded video or taken photos that they believe may be of aid in the investigation of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, NASA has established a special location on the Web where Internet users may upload their media files to be reviewed by NASA.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's Statement

As my press officer indicated earlier, we will make a statement now and a little later this afternoon, about 3 o’clock eastern time, there will be a full technical briefing conducted from the Johnson Space Center. So at this point, we?re just going to give you the circumstances, as we understand them, leading up to this particular tragedy today. We will not take questions from the media.

Shuttle lost over north central Texas

NASA Television reported Saturday morning that communications were lost with Shuttle Columbia at approximately 8 a.m. EST over north-central Texas. Columbia was at approximately 200,000 feet altitude. Debris has been sighted in north central Texas. Search and rescue has been dispatched in Dallas-Fort Worth area.

News media covering the Space Shuttle should stay tuned to NASA Television, which is broadcast on AMC-2, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees West longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical and audio is monaural at 6.8 MHz.

New information, including the times and locations of press briefings, will be posted to this page NASA Home Page

Ocean surface saltiness influences El Nino forecasts

NASA sponsored scientists have discovered by knowing the salt content of the ocean’s surface, they may be able to improve the ability to predict El Nino events. Scientists, studying the western Pacific Ocean, find regional changes in the saltiness of surface ocean water correspond to changes in upper ocean heat content in the months preceding an El Nino event. Knowing the distribution of surface salinity may help predict events. Salinity and temperature combine to dictate the ocean’s density. Greater salinity, like colder temperatures, results in an increase in ocean density with a corresponding depression of the sea surface height.

Telescope follows trail of neutrinos into deepest reaches of the universe

A unique telescope buried in Antarctic ice promises unparalleled insight into such extraordinary phenomena as colliding black holes, gamma-ray bursts, the violent cores of distant galaxies and the wreckage of exploded stars. An international team of physicists and astronomers report that the AMANDA telescope is capable of tracking high-energy neutrinos ? elusive subatomic particles ? to their sources, which are emitted by these signature events. Their findings will be published in the Feb. 1. 2003, issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers Trace Microquasar’s Path Back in Time

Astronomers have traced the orbit through our Milky Way Galaxy of a voracious neutron star and a companion star it is cannibalizing, and conclude that the pair joined more than 30 million years ago and probably were catapulted out of a cluster of stars far from the Galaxy’s center. The pair of stars, called Scorpius X-1, form a “microquasar,” in which material sucked from the “normal” star forms a rapidly-rotating disk around the superdense neutron star. The disk becomes so hot it emits X-rays, and also spits out “jets” of subatomic particles at nearly the speed of light.

Deadly coral toxin exposes ion pump’s deepest secret

Right now, in your body, tiny pumps in the fatty membranes surrounding all your cells are hard at work pushing select charged ions, such as sodium, potassium or calcium, through those membranes. Like a water pump in a high-rise apartment building overcoming the force of gravity to move water up to a tank on its roof, these ion pumps work against “electrochemical gradients” to transport ions from one side of the membrane to the other. Now, researchers at The Rockefeller University report using palytoxin, a deadly coral-derived toxin, to pry open perhaps the ion pump’s deepest secret: that it is essentially a more elaborate version of an ion channel.

Shock Waves Through the Solar Nebula Could Explain Water-Rich Space Rocks

Shock waves through icy parts of the solar nebula could well be the mechanism that enriched meteorites with water — water that some believe provided an otherwise dry Earth with oceans, according to a new study published in today’s issue (Jan. 24) of Science.
Scientists have long debated how “chondrules” might have formed. Chondrules are millimeter-sized blobs of once-melted minerals found within chondritic meteorites, which are thought to be the oldest objects in the solar system. In some of these meteorites, chondrules are rimmed by fine silicate dust particles that have reacted with water.

Mars May Be Much Older — or Younger — than Thought

Research by a University at Buffalo planetary geologist suggests that generally accepted estimates about the geologic age of surfaces on Mars — which influence theories about its history and whether or not it once sustained life — could be way off. Funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the research eventually could overturn principles about the relative ages of different areas on the Red Planet that have not been questioned for nearly 20 years.