3-D Printer Powered Up on the International Space Station

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore installs a 3-D Printer in the Microgravity Science Glovebox on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA-TV

Darian Bryant, left, and Melissa Hopper, stowage engineers with the Payload Operations Integration Center at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, work with NASA astronautBarry "Butch" Wilmore to calibrate the first 3-D Printer flown on the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/Emmett Given

Today, NASA took a big step toward changing the way we plan for long-duration space voyages when astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore successfully installed and prepared the first 3-D printer for upcoming manufacturing operations on the International Space Station.

"This printer is a critical first step for in-space manufacturing," said Jason Crusan, director of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Additive manufacturing with 3-D printers will allow space crews to be less reliant on supply missions from Earth and lead to sustainable, self-reliant exploration missions where resupply is difficult and costly. The space station provides the optimal place to perfect this technology in microgravity."

Wilmore installed the printer in the station’s Microgravity Science Glovebox and started the printer, which extruded plastic to form the first of a series of calibration coupons, a small plastic sample about the size of a postage stamp. After calibration of the printer is complete and verified, the printer will make the first NASA-designed 3-D printed object in space. The goal of the 3-D Printing in Zero-G Technology Demonstration on the space station is to show that additive manufacturing can make a variety of parts and tools in space. The 3-D printerheats a relatively low-temperature plastic filament to build parts layer on top of layer in designs supplied to the machine.

Before the printer left Earth in September 2014 on SpaceX’s fourth commercial cargo resupply mission, engineers loaded the first files to be printed. These initial parts -- primarily test coupons -- will be returned to Earth for detailed analysis and comparison to identical ground control samples made earlier this year prior to launch with the same printer while it was at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

"The goal of the first phase of printing is to verify that the 3-D printing process works the same in microgravity as it does on the ground," said Niki Werkheiser, NASA's 3-D printer project manager at Marshall. "Once we confirm that the process works, we will move to the second phase of printing which focuses more on the design and utilization of the parts we print, which will ultimately lead to establishing an on-demand machine shop in space."

Niki Werkheiser, project manager for the NASA's 3-D Printing investigation at the Marshall Space Flight Center, explains the calibration and check-out process during a recent episode of Space Station Live on NASA-TV. (Video: NASA)

NASA contracted Made In Space, Inc. at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, to design and build the printer. Going forward, Made In Space engineers will use NASA-provided software and work with controllers at NASA’s Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) in Huntsville to send commands directly to the printer from the ground. As the first objects are printed, NASA and Made In Space engineers will monitor printing via downlinked images and videos. The majority of the printing process is controlled from the ground to limit crew time required for operations.

"We’re approaching the most exciting moment of this experiment after years of intensive work, which dates back to Made In Space's first microgravity testing with NASA's Flight Opportunities Program in 2011," said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made In Space, Inc. “Our team is on standby to send the command to print the first object in space. We are taking everything we are learning on the space station and using it to design an even more elaborate 3-D printer, which will be available for anyone to use.”

That printer is scheduled to be launched to the station next year and will be available to meet manufacturing needs of both NASA and commercial users.

NASA invited students to propose what they would print in space as part of a Future Engineers competition. Students can create and submit a digital 3-D model of a tool they think astronauts need in space. The winning student will watch from the POIC alongside the operations control team as their design is printed in space. The deadline for entry is Dec. 15.

Learn more about additive manufacturing at NASA's 3-D printing website or follow updates on Twitter at @NASA3DPrinter.

Joshua Buck

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1100

jbuck@nasa.gov

Tracy McMahan

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

256-544-0034

Tracy.Mcmahan@nasa.gov

Dan Huot

Johnson Space Center

281-483-5111

daniel.g.huot@nasa.gov

ORIGINAL: NASA

By Bill Hubscher International Space Station Program Science Office

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center

November 17, 2014

Fox Networks Group To Launch ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’ In 181 Countries, 220 Channels

Fox Networks Group today announced its first ever cross-network global premiere event — for Seth MacFarlane‘s passion project, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, on Sunday, March 9, 9-10 PM ET/PT. In addition to premiering on the 10 U.S. networks simulcasting the premiere episode — Fox Broadcasting Company, National Geographic Channel, FX, FXX, FXM, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports 2, Nat Geo Wild, Nat Geo Mundo and FOX Life — and on the Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels International, as previously announced, Cosmos will premiere on all 90 National Geographic Channels in 180 countries, as well as 120 Fox-branded channels in 125 countries, making this the largest global launch ever for a television series. Rolling out immediately after the U.S. premiere, international markets will begin airing the premiere episode day and date on both Fox-branded and National Geographic Channels, concluding within one week of the domestic premiere event. The additional 12 episodes will air exclusively on National Geographic Channels outside the U.S.

TV Trailer: Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Cosmos’

This first multi-network launch event for Fox Networks Group, along with the series debut on Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channels International, will make Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey available on 220 channels in 181 countries, with an overall footprint of more than half a billion homes.

In today’s announcement, Fox Networks Group chairman and CEO Peter Rice called it “one of the most incredible experiences ever imagined for television.” From the announcement:

After the cross-network premiere event, COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY will continue its epic 13-episode run, airing Sundays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX, and Mondays – with all-new bonus footage and behind-the-scenes content – on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) (10:00-11:00 PM ET/PT).

More than three decades after the debut of “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” Carl Sagan’s stunning and iconic exploration of the universe as revealed by science, Seth MacFarlane has teamed with Sagan’s original creative collaborators – writer/executive producer Ann Druyan and co-writer, astronomer Steven Soter – to conceive the 13-part series that will serve as a successor to the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original series.

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY is hosted by renowned astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. As with the legendary original series, the new COSMOS is the saga of how we discovered the laws of nature and found our coordinates in space and time. The series brings to life never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, transporting viewers to new worlds and across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest – and the smallest – scale. The series invents new modes of scientific storytelling to reveal the grandeur of the universe and re-invent celebrated elements of the original series, including the Cosmic Calendar and the Ship of the Imagination. The most profound scientific concepts are presented with stunning clarity, uniting skepticism and wonder, and weaving rigorous science with the emotional and spiritual into a transcendent experience.

ORIGINAL: Deadline
By THE DEADLINE TEAM
February 13, 2014

Mars Soil Sample Delivered for Analysis Inside Rover. NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Report #11 -- October 19, 2012

ORIGINAL: NASA NASA TV

Three bite marks left in the Martian ground by the scoop on the robotic arm of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity are visible in this image taken by the rover's right Navigation Camera during the mission's 69th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 15, 2012).

The robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity delivered a sample of Martian soil to the rover's observation tray for the first time during the mission's 70th Martian day, or sol (Oct. 16, 2012). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest."  Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has ingested its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rover, a capability at the core of the two-year mission.

The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument is analyzing this sample to determine what minerals it contains.

"We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," said Curiosity's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction. Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form."

The sample is a sieved portion -- about as much material as in a baby aspirin -- from the third scoop collected by Curiosity as a windblown patch of dusty sand called "Rocknest." The rover's robotic arm delivered the sample to CheMin's opened inlet funnel on the rover's deck on Oct. 17.

The previous day, the rover shook the scooped material inside sample-processing chambers to scrub internal surfaces of any residue carried from Earth. One earlier scoopful was also used for cleaning. Additional repetitions of this cleaning method will be used before delivery of a future sample to the rover's other internal analytic instrument, the Sample Analysis at Mars investigation, which studies samples' chemistry.

Various small bits of light-toned material on the ground at Rocknest have affected the rover's activities in the past several days. One piece about half an inch (1.3 centimeters) long was noticed on Oct. 7. The rover team postponed use of the robotic arm for two days while investigating this object, and assessed it to be debris from the spacecraft.

Images taken after Curiosity collected its second scoop of Rocknest material on Oct. 12 showed smaller bits of light-toned material in the hole dug by the scooping action. This led to discarding that scoopful rather than using it to scrub the processing mechanisms. Scientists assess these smaller, bright particles to be native Martian material, not from the spacecraft.

"We plan to learn more both about the spacecraft material and about the smaller, bright particles," said Curiosity Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "We will finish determining whether the spacecraft material warrants concern during future operations. The native Mars particles become fodder for the mission's scientific studies."

During a two-year prime mission, researchers are using Curiosity's 10 instruments to assess whether the study area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the project and built Curiosity. For more about Curiosity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

A NASA's Mars Curiosity rover team member gives an update on developments and status of the planetary exploration mission. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 1:31:45 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6, which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light. The rover will conduct a nearly two-year prime mission to investigate whether the Gale Crater region of Mars ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.

Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.

Grants help scientists explore boundary between science & science fiction

ORIGINAL: Berkeley

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | October 5, 2012

BERKELEY —

Two University of California, Berkeley, scientists have received research grants to explore areas of science that bleed into science fiction.

Lasers in use by telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. If aliens elsewhere in the galaxy use lasers for astronomy or communications, we may be able to detect them from Earth. Courtesy of Keck Observatory.

Lasers in use by telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. If aliens elsewhere in the galaxy use lasers for astronomy or communications, we may be able to detect them from Earth. Courtesy of Keck Observatory.

Astronomer Geoff Marcy, who kicked off the search for extrasolar planets 20 years ago, plans to rummage through data from the Kepler space telescope in search of evidence for civilizations advanced enough to have built massive orbiting “solar” power stations.

Theoretical physicist Raphael Bousso will look for ways of detecting universes other than our own, and try to understand what these alternate universes, or multiverses, will look like.

Marcy and Bousso are among 20 innovative researchers who will share more than $4 million in New Frontiers in Astronomy & Cosmology International Grants that were announced Thursday, Oct. 4, by the University of Chicago. The grants were made possible through funding from the Pennsylvania-based John Templeton Foundation as a way to encourage scientists and students worldwide to explore fundamental, big questions in astronomy and cosmology that engage groundbreaking ideas on the nature of the universe.

Many of the recipients, including Marcy, will describe their projects during a joint conference Oct. 12 and 13 at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Joining these presenters will be high school and college students, including UC Berkeley undergraduate Taro Yamaguchi-Phillips, who wrote winning essays about the universe and its habitats for a contest also sponsored by the University of Chicago. His essay, “From Bang to Brain: How Complexity Arises in the Universe,” won an honorable mention. UC Berkeley Nobel Laureate Charles Townes, professor emeritus of physics and 2005 Templeton Prize recipient, will help present the essay prizes.

“Through these awards, the program aims to support bold, innovative research with the potential to expand boundaries and catalyze breakthrough discoveries, as well as inspire students to pursue scientific knowledge and become original, forward-looking big question thinkers of tomorrow,” said Donald G. York, the Horace B. Horton Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, who led the competition.

Marcy, a professor of astronomy, is a member of the Kepler space telescope team that is observing the light from 160,000 stars in our galaxy in search of ones that dim periodically because of a planet passing or transiting in front of them.

Marcy realized that the Kepler data might also reveal stars with orbiting power stations called Dyson Spheres: megastructures that orbit a star and capture a large proportion of its energy. They were proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson more than 50 years ago as a likely way for advanced civilizations to power their power-hungry societies. Marcy will look at 1,000 of Kepler’s extrasolar systems in search of solar arrays that pass in front of stars and make them wink on and off.

Cosmologist and string theorist Raphael Bousso and astronomer Geoff Marcy are exploring areas of science bordering on science fiction.

“Kepler has now discovered over 2,000 new worlds around other stars, most of them smaller than twice the size of Earth, and many probably having water,” Marcy said. “This flood of nearly Earth-size planets offers the first opportunity for us humans to hunt for other intelligent species that may have evolved on them.”

Marcy’s grant - $200,000 for two years – will also pay for time on the enormous Keck telescopes in Hawaii to take spectra of 1,000 planet-hosting stars in search of laser emissions from advanced civilizations,

“Technological civilizations may communicate with their space probes located throughout the galaxy by using laser beams, either in visible light or infrared light,” he said. ”Laser light is detectable from other civilizations because the power is concentrated into a narrow beam and the light is all at one specific color or frequency. The lasers outshine the host star at the color of the laser.”

Bousso, a professor of physics, is known for his proposal with Joseph Polchinski, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. now at UC Santa Barbara, that string theory implies that the universe is comprised of possibly an infinite number of multiverses, each with its own physical characteristics but operating under the same laws of physics. Though we are unlikely to be able to visit them or even see them with the largest telescopes – light hasn’t had time to travel that far since the universe began – he is optimistic that it’s possible to find predictions of the hypothesis that can be tested. His two-year, $125,000 grant will help him explore the implications of his hypothesis.

“People were initially skeptical of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, but now, decades later, your GPS runs on it and it has led to incredibly profound questions in physics, such as how the universe began and what happens inside a black hole,” Bousso said. “We are just at the early stages of this multiverse theory, but it is a very serious, plausible proposition that we have to take seriously and test – and try to shoot down as hard as we can.”

Did Slow Space Rocks Seed Life on Earth?

ORIGINAL: NationalGeographic

Luna Shyr. National Geographic News

September 28, 2012

New model yields better odds for transfer of organisms among planetary systems.

Planets coalesce and rocky bodies collide in an artist's conception of a young planetary system. Illustration courtesy Lynette Cook, FUSE/NASA

If microorganisms could survive a journey through space inside meteoroids, could life from Earth be transferred to planets in other solar systems—or even vice versa? A new study suggests the possibility is much higher than scientists once thought.

Using computer simulations involving slow-moving rocks, scientists from Princeton University, the University of Arizona, and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain concluded that Earth could have exchanged rocks trillions of times with planets from other planetary systems during the solar system's infancy.

(Related: "Did Comets Make Life on Earth Possible?")

At the time—several billion years ago—the sun would have been in its native star cluster, with Earth and nearby planetary systems under heavy meteorite bombardment, said study co-author Amaya Moro-Martin, an astrophysicist at CAB.

The research, published in the journal Astrobiology, was presented this week at the European Planetary Science Congress in Madrid.

Scientists had previously considered the possibility that meteorites could escape from our solar system and land on a terrestrial planet in another system. But they had concluded that the chances were extremely slim because of the speeds of the objects involved.

"Everyone assumed the rocks would be ejected very fast—so fast they couldn't be captured by the next star. They were flying right by," said study leader Edward Belbruno, a Princeton mathematician.

Space Rocks Sneaking Up on Stars

Belbruno, Moro-Martin, and colleagues considered a new scenario: a low-velocity process called weak transfer.

When they factored in much slower speeds of around 100 meters (330 feet) per second, along with other considerations, the researchers found a strong case for lithopanspermia—the idea that biologic material can be spread through pieces of planetary rock hurled into space by collisions and other events. (Also see: "Life Ingredients Found in Superhot Meteorites—A First.")

"Our idea is that, instead of leaving Earth fast, you leave slowly and sort of sneak up on the next star," said Belbruno, who demonstrated the principles of weak transfer in 1991 with a Japanese probe trying to enter the moon's orbit.

In its youth, the solar system would have still been embedded in the sun's native stellar cluster, when the stars were close together and moving very slowly relative to each other. Before the cluster slowly dispersed, the research suggests, a window of opportunity had opened up for lithopanspermia to occur.

Did Life on Earth Come From Other Planets?

Rocks have already intermingled within our solar system: A number of meteorites found on Earth originate from Mars, others from the moon. This new model opens up the possibility of large rock quantities being exchanged between different planetary systems within a star cluster.

Under the weak-transfer scenario, as many as 12 out of 10,000 rocks cast off by our solar system and its closest neighbor in the sun's birth cluster could have been captured by the other. Earlier simulations put the odds at around one in a million.

The model also boosts the odds that life-bearing rocks could seed other worlds under certain conditions.

For one, microorganisms like bacterial spores would have to survive a journey fraught with hazards. "Things like UV radiation and cosmic rays would basically fry the poor guys," Moro-Martin said.

The bigger the rock, however, the better the chances that the life-forms could hide long enough to survive an interstellar journey, she noted. (Related: " Space Poison Helped Start Life on Earth?")

Although life on Earth is largely thought to have originated here, the notion that it could have spread to other worlds via weak transfer leaves open the intriguing, opposite scenario.

"It's possible the reverse process is true—that life on Earth was seeded from other places," Moro-Martin said. "The mechanism operates both ways. Given how many extrasolar planetary systems we know are out there and how diverse they are, this opens a new world of possibilities to dream about."

ScienceCasts: The Sound of Earthsong

ORIGINAL: NASA

A NASA spacecraft has recorded eerie-sounding radio emissions coming from our own planet. These beautiful "songs of Earth" could, ironically, be responsible for the proliferation of deadly electrons in the Van Allen Belts.

Answers to some great space questions

ORIGINAL: Science Dump

Vsauce's Michael Stevens is here to answer more of YOUR space questions!

What if Earth had a 2nd Moon?

What is cosmic consciousness?

And Michael answers the question with the most thumbs up! 

---------------

Leave your questions in the comment section or ask it in a video response. An expert will be back to answer 2 questions that they love and the question with the most thumbs up, no matter what.

---------------

Learn More:

The potentially disastrous effects of a second moon: http://goo.gl/txlFt

More about the cosmic conscious: http://goo.gl/fLZnR

What is the mass of a photon? http://goo.gl/3GOq9

Vsauce video about consciousness: http://goo.gl/zsl7e

---------------

SUBSCRIBE, future astronauts! http://www.youtube.com/spacelab

DOWNLOAD THE SPACE LAB PAPERCRAFT: http://goo.gl/tU7mn

Watch more episodes of 'Ask the Expert': http://goo.gl/9MNo5

Check out Michael's channel for more mind blowing videos: http://www.youtube.com/vsauce

Huracán Irene visto desde la Estación Espacial Internacional (2011/08/25)

ORIGINAL: NASA

Las cámaras montadas en la Estación Espacial Internacional han capturado nuevas imágnes del huracán Irene, ya que cruzó las Bahamas a las 3:47 pm EDT el 25 de agosto de 2011. Irene, que es un un huracán de categoría 3,  enorme y de gran alcance, se desplaza hacia el nor-noroeste hacia un encuentro probable con los Outer Banks de Carolina del Norte el sábado antes de seguir hacia los estados del Atlántico medio y un camino posible en el área metropolitana de Nueva York y Nueva Inglaterra a finales de este fin de semana.

(Su tamaño es tal que es causante de variaciones de las condiciones climáticas locales de Colombia)

Vista espacial de La Tierra en tiempo real.

ORIGINAL: Smart Planet

By Laura Shin | June 17, 2011, 4:30 AM PDT

Un globo terráqueo japonés nuevo y gigante fué presentado en Tokio, cuenta con 10.362 paneles OLED que muestran actualizada y constantemente imágenes satelitales de la Tierra.

El Globo de cerca de 6m de diámetro, llamado Geo-Cosmos, muestra el aspecto actual de la Tierra en más de 10 millones de píxeles, una resolución muy alta que es diez veces más nítida que el modelo anterior, con paneles LED.

La exhibición interactiva en el Museo Nacional de Ciencias Emergentes e Innovación también cuenta con pantallas táctiles interactivas que permiten a los visitantes navegar por las imágenes y los datos de ciencias de la tierra de todo el mundo. Por ejemplo, las pantallas táctiles disponen de simulaciones del terremoto de 11 de marzo que provocó el maremoto de gran intensidad en el noreste de Japón.

Se ven visitantes del museo maravillados por el mundo y jugando con las pantallas interactivas:

Globo terráqueo África vista desde abajo