They're not packing an arsenal of air compressors, fuel, or even spare tires, though. Instead, NASA PIT Crews are equipped with the intimate knowledge of what is takes to design, develop, manufacture, process and launch space transportation systems. Lately, those teams have been making significant progress under Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2).

"We call this insight," said Scott Thurston, who is leading the PIT Crews as chief of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) Partner Integration Office. "We're there to glean the information and then watch, and help, if needed. Be a part of their program, but not get in the way."

Each PIT Crew is made up of about 10 to 15 dedicated spaceflight experts, supported by 10s if not 100s of system expert engineers, who are available to help industry partners meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities.

Their expertise ranges from engineering and safety to health and medical and mission operations. Representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration and NASA's Astronaut Office also are members of the seven PIT Crews, one for each of the seven funded and unfunded CCDev2 partner companies.

Thurston said CCP is very much like a venture capitalist endeavor because NASA is investing in systems and laying out expectations, but not dictating how companies make their systems work.

"You know, it's funny, it's the companies telling us why they feel comfortable about their systems," Thurston said. "It's not them telling us why it's OK to buy their spacecraft or launch vehicle, but why it's OK to invest money in them."

"The milestones are really the mile markers of each one of these companies," Thurston said. "It's based on each company's development plan, not what the government wants, so each company is a little bit different."

Some of the spacecraft and launch vehicle designs are infant in nature while others have been proving their experience and reliability for many years.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), for example, has 28 successful launches under its belt with the Atlas V rocket. For CCDev 2, ULA and NASA are working under an unfunded Space Act Agreement to assess human rating that system.

"Many want to know why the Atlas V needs to be assessed to fly humans, after all, they've been flying high-value robotic, science and defense missions for years," said Cheryl Malloy, the NASA partner manger for ULA.

Malloy's answer is simple: "If there's a problem with the spacecraft or rocket during ascent, options must be available to abort the mission and bring the crew back to Earth safely."

To develop that abort capability and keep the cost of human spaceflight affordable, NASA and ULA are exploring "kitable" solutions that would only be added to a rocket when launching humans.

During ULA's recent Tailored System Requirements Review, NASA received an in-depth look at what it would take to get a crew in and out of a spacecraft on the launch pad, a dual engine configuration on the upper stage that would improve performance, an emergency detection system, and vehicle structural modifications that would accommodate unique spacecraft designs.

Blue Origin also completed two milestones for the development of its Space Vehicle. First, the company completed a Mission Concept Review in which NASA was able to look at the goals and objectives, high-level requirements, mission feasibility, concept evaluation criteria and risks associated with the spacecraft. The second was a review of the company's plan to hot-fire its Reusable Booster Stage Engine Thrust Chamber Assembly (TCA).

"The teams reviewed the TCA interface control diagram requirements, test plan and systems requirements document for testing at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi," said Bill Lane, the NASA partner manager for Blue Origin. "After that hot-fire, Blue Origin will deliver a test report to NASA."

Lane said the company's pusher escape team continues to make progress toward the upcoming motor ground firing and pad escape testing milestones. Blue Origin's space vehicle team also is continuing with spacecraft system designs that will lead to the System Requirements Review milestone scheduled for May.

Boeing recently completed a simulation between the launch vehicle emergency detection system and avionics system integration facility for its CST-100 spacecraft. The spacecraft also underwent wind tunnel testing.

"We are looking forward to several other significant milestones," said Gennaro Caliendo, the NASA partner manager for Boeing. "Next will be the launch abort engine fabrication and hot-fire demonstration, and then a full-up landing system air drop demonstration test where the capabilities of the parachutes and air bags are tested."

Excalibur Almaz Inc. (EAI) is considered the newcomer to CCDev2, but has jumped into the space race full throttle with plans to upgrade its heritage hardware with American-made life support systems.

"This whole program is really like a portfolio," Thurston said. "We're not just going with people we know, we're also enticed to work with people who might do things considerably different."

"Both EAI and the PIT Crew currently are preparing for the upcoming System Requirements Status Review," said Sarah Waechter, EAI's partner manager for NASA. "We also are looking forward to the Launch Vehicle Compatibility Review where we will discuss the initial spacecraft to launch vehicle integration."

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC), which is the only CCDev2 company building a winged spacecraft, just delivered the structural pieces for its Dream Chaser Engineering Test Article (ETA) to its plant in Louisville, Colo.

"The company can now begin assembly and integration of their secondary structures and subsystems," said Valin Thorn, SNC partner manager for NASA. "This will lead to the ETA captive carry flight test scheduled for this spring."

During that test, a Virgin Galactic White Knight 2 carrier aircraft will drop the Dream Chaser test article over NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., to measure its performance.

Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) has been focusing its attention on TIMs, which are Technical Interchange Meetings. The first focused on preliminary models and design analysis planning of the Liberty launch vehicle, including certification, requirements allocation, safety and mission assurance, as well as failure and hazard analysis data. Ken Tenbusch, NASA partner manager for ATK, said his team is looking forward to the second TIM, which likely will include more details of ATK's upper stage design.

"Our NASA team is excited about working with ATK's French partner, Astrium, and supporting their efforts in converting the core stage of the Ariane V rocket that will become Liberty's upper stage," Tenbusch said.

Jon Cowart, NASA partner manager for SpaceX, said he and his PIT Crew are working with the company while it develops a launch abort system and outfits the Dragon capsule with interior systems, such as seats, displays, air circulation, and air conditioning and heating.

"When you add humans into the mix it really complicates things," said Cowart. "We need to keep the crew alive and informed about what's going on around them."

The most recent milestone SpaceX completed was the second Design Status Review, which gave CCP an overview of the entire system, from the Falcon 9 rocket and capsule to the Merlin engines that help loft the system into space. The company also completed a full-duration, full-thrust firing of its new SuperDraco development engine in preparation for the ninth milestone to be completed under its funded Space Act Agreement with NASA.

"We're actually seeing smoke and fire, which is pretty exciting," Thurston said.

Much like the person in a pit crew who washes the windshield during a race, the CCDev 2 partner managers are keeping their industry partners on a clear path toward ferrying U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station in just a few years.

"We make sure that they're channeled and focusing in on the things that we're most concerned about," Cowart said.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 09, 2012 - The Black Point Lava Flow in northern Arizona offers a research haven for NASA's Desert Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team of scientists and engineers, because this rough, dusty terrain, with its extreme temperatures that swing from hot to cold, resembles other places in the solar system.

On this bleak landscape, NASA crews can test robotic systems and extravehicular equipment; adjust and improve their designs; and create effective procedures for solar-system exploration.

NASA scientist Jacob Bleacher will discuss "NASA's Desert RATS" at 11:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the Mary Pickford Theater on the third floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington. The event is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

"Before we can make boot prints on other worlds, Desert RATS fills a critical need to study the way in which we will conduct science throughout the Solar System," Bleacher said. "Combining Apollo-experienced scientists and engineers with our next generation explorers, our team is preparing to expand the human presence beyond the Earth."

The illustrated lecture, the first in a series of programs in 2012, is presented through a collaboration between the Library's Science, Technology and Business Division and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The collaboration is in its sixth year.

Bleacher is an expert on planetary lava flows. In 2008, following a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at NASA Goddard, he was hired as a planetary geologist in the Planetary Geodynamics Laboratory. Bleacher's research looks at the characteristics of planetary volcanic areas through a combination of field studies on Earth and analysis of planetary data from space-based instruments.

He is currently studying the sequence of events that basaltic lava goes through as it takes shape on Earth's exterior just after an eruption. He employs his field work on lava flows in New Mexico and Hawaii for comparison with similar lava flows he is mapping in the Tharsis province of Mars.

Bleacher earned a bachelor's degree in geosciences from Franklin and Marshall College in 2000 and a doctorate in geological sciences from Arizona State University in 2006.

To request ADA accommodations, please call no later than five business days in advance 202-707-6382 (voice/tty) or email ada@loc.gov. Public questions can be addressed at the LOC Science, Technology and Business Division 202-707-5664.

The Library of Congress maintains one of the largest and most diverse collections of scientific and technical information in the world. The Science, Technology and Business Division provides reference and bibliographic services and develops the general collections of the Library in all areas of science, technology, business and economics. For more information go here.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Feb 09, 2012 - One of NASA's industry partners, Sierra Nevada(SNC), recently delivered the primary structure of its first Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to the company's facility in Louisville, Colo., where it will be assembled and integrated with secondary systems. This is one of 12 milestones to be completed under SNC's funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

"It's rewarding to see our partner's ideas and concepts come to fruition," said CCP Program Manager Ed Mango. "The company's delivery of its flight structure will allow them to make more strides toward launching NASA astronauts on American vehicles to the International Space Station."

The Dream Chaser flight test vehicle, a full-scale prototype of the company's planned winged spacecraft, will be used to carry out several remaining NASA Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) milestones, including a captive carry flight and the first free flight of the craft.

"SNC is proud to have met its schedule and cost targets in the delivery of our first flight structure as we continue to make preparations for our vehicle's first full-scale flight," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems.

"The Dream Chaser Program is making great strides toward developing a safe and cost-effective space system that will provide our country with the capability to safely transport crew and critical cargo to and from the International Space Station."

The all-composite structure was designed by the SNC team and built in conjunction with SNC Dream Chaser team organizations AdamWorks of Centennial, Colo., Applied Composite Technology of Gunnison, Utah, and Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif.

"Our team now includes more than a dozen heritage space companies and seven NASA centers whose combined strength has continued to allow us to exceed the program's expectations," said Jim Voss, SNC's vice president for Space Exploration. Voss is a former space shuttle astronaut and was a member of the second crew to live aboard the International Space Station.

Dream Chaser's CCDev2 flight tests will be conducted with the assistance of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., under a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement (RSAA). During the captive carry test, a Virgin Galactic White Knight 2 carrier aircraft will drop the Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to measure its performance.

SNC flight operations will be managed by the program's Director of Flight Operations Steve Lindsey, who joined the Dream Chaser team in 2011. Lindsey is a veteran of five shuttle missions and was chief of NASA's Astronaut Office from 2008 until his retirement from the agency in 2011.

All of NASA's industry partners continue to meet their established milestones in developing commercial crew transportation capabilities that will ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station reducing the amount of time America is without its own system.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Feb 09, 2012 - As part of NASA's ongoing efforts to foster development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability to and from low Earth orbit and the International Space Station, NASA has issued a call for industry to submit proposals for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Initiative.

It's expected that proposals will lead to Space Act Agreements that will help NASA and the U.S. achieve safe, reliable, and cost effective human access to space. NASA expects to make multiple awards this summer, with values ranging from $300 - $500 million.

To provide industry a better understanding of this initiative so that they may provide more comprehensive proposals, NASA plans a pre-proposal conference on Feb. 14, at the Courtyard Marriott in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Proposals are due March 23.

"President Obama is working hard to create an American economy built to last," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "NASA's support of commercial innovation to reach low Earth orbit is helping to support these efforts by spurring new technological development and creating jobs and economic benefits for years to come."

NASA's announcement asks industry to propose a base period of approximately 21 months, running from award through May 2014.

The goals of the base period include completing the design of a fully integrated commercial crew transportation system, which consists of the spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground operations, and mission control.

In addition, NASA is asking for the proposals to contain optional milestones beyond the base period leading to and culminating in a crewed orbital demonstration flight.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 06, 2012 - Spacecraft must operate with utmost precision when conducting landing maneuvers on other planets, or docking to a space station. To ensure they do not drift off course, imaging sensors collect a flood of data that are analyzed in real time.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Architecture and Software Technology FIRST have engineered a system based on multicore technologies that allow spacecraft to be piloted and positioned with pinpoint accuracy.

It can be seen at the embedded world trade show in Nuremberg from February 28 to March 1, 2012.

For a spacecraft to "see" and maintain its equilibrium, it needs a high-performance onboard computer. This device must process a myriad of sensor data simultaneously, and withstand the severe conditions of outer space. Through the MUSE project (Multicore Architecture for Sensor-based Position Tracking in Space), researchers are seeking to improve the positioning and guidance of such spacecraft.

Under the plan, scientists from FIRST developed an extremely high-performing onboard computer using modern multi-core processors. High-resolution cameras and infrared or radar sensors on the spacecraft deliver immense data volumes that help determine the position of the target object.

These data have to be processed in real time, in order to compute the precise control of the vehicle. Spaceflight-enabled computers to date have always had to make sacrifi ces here, in terms of quality, due to the high performance requirements.

"In space, the major challenge is this: the system must provide an enormously high computing capacity, while power supply, weight, space and cooling requirements are kept to a minimum. In addition, cosmic radiation may cause sporadic data corruption, which has to be detected and rectifi ed by means of error tolerance mechanisms," explains Samuel Pletner, in charge of Aerospace Business Development at FIRST.

"We have to reliably eliminate the possibility of undetected errors leading to erroneous guidance commands and ultimately, uncontrolled movements of the spacecraft."

The researchers solve the problem with the P4080 Multicore Processor, manufactured by Freescale, which is highly integrated and particularly robust. Besides maximum processing capacity, more effi cient error tolerance mechanisms can also be realized with these processors. Fraunhofer experts have devised complex position-detection algorithms specially designed for multi-core architectures.

Thus, critical calculations can be conducted on a number of different processor cores, and the results checked through a reliable comparison.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST San Diego CA (SPX) Feb 06, 2012 - Improving fire-fighting techniques in space and getting a better understanding of fuel combustion here on Earth are the focus of a series of experiments on the International Space Station, led by a professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. to A first round of experiments ran from March 2009 to December 2011. A second round kicked off in January and is set to last a year or more.

Forman Williams, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been working on fire research and fire safety with NASA since the 1970s. You will not, however, find him on the space station. The experiments are run by remote control from NASA's John Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

Williams and colleagues at Princeton, UC Davis, the University of Connecticut and Cornell analyze the results at their home institutions. They will present findings based on the first series of experiments this summer at a symposium in Poland.

"Research leads to a better understanding of fire behavior," Willams said. "And better understanding ultimately leads to better safety designs."

All the experiments take place in a chamber located in the Destiny module of the International Space Station. The chamber is part of a piece of equipment called the Combustion Integrated Rack, which is roughly the size of a 5.5-foot bookcase and weighs close to 560 lbs. The rack is crammed with sensors and equipped with video cameras that record experiments.

The chamber is equipped with a device called the Multiuser Droplet Combustion Apparatus that can generate and ignite droplets from different fuels in different atmospheric conditions.

Fire safety on the space station
The Flame Extinguishment Experiment, known as FLEX, ran in the chamber from March 2009 to December 2011. The goal was to get a better understanding of how fire happens on a space craft, where there is no up or down and where atmosphere and pressure are tightly controlled. The ultimate goal was to improve fire-fighting techniques in space.

To help understand how flames behave and burn in space, FLEX researchers ignited a small drop of either heptane or methanol. As this little sphere of fuel burned for about 20 seconds, it was engulfed by a spherically symmetric flame. The droplet shrank until either the flame extinguished or the fuel ran out.

Flames in space can burn at a lower temperature, at a lower rate and with less oxygen than in normal gravity. This means that materials used to extinguish fire must be present in higher concentrations. The slow flow of air from the fans mixing air in a spacecraft can make flames burn even faster.

The space station is equipped with carbon-dioxide fire extinguishers, so researchers investigated how fuel droplets burn in the presence of different amounts of CO2. Also, ambient air can become completely fire safe when there is not enough oxygen for fuels to ignite. This threshold is called the limiting oxygen index. Williams and colleagues pinpointed this index for methanol and heptane on the space station.

Fuel combustion experiments
Williams is now working on a new series of experiments, called FLEX-2, which aims to recreate conditions that are closer to what actually happens in a combustion engine. Findings could lead to new designs for cleaner fuels that have a smaller carbon footprint and emit fewer pollutants, among other applications.

While the original FLEX experiments looked at fuels with only one component, FLEX-2 will run tests on fuels with two components, more similar to fuels used in real-life conditions, which usually have multiple components. While FLEX examined the behavior of single fuel droplets, the new round of tests will also look at the interaction of two fuel droplets.

But Williams said he isn't quite done with the original FLEX experiments. He and colleagues still need to explain some of what they observed. For example, when the flame around a fuel droplet extinguishes, that droplet should stop shrinking because combustion has essentially stopped.

But in about a dozen instances during the FLEX experiments, heptane droplets kept shrinking at the same rate as when the flame was still burning. Williams, who has studied combustion for the past 50 years, said he has never seen anything like it.

Tests on the space shuttle
This is not Williams' first round of tests to be run in space. His work includes several experiments that ran on Spacelab, a science module flown in the cargo bay of U.S. space shuttles. The holy grail of combustion science is a flame around a fuel droplet that looks like a perfectly symmetrical sphere.

That is very hard to achieve here on Earth. It is however a common occurrence in microgravity. Spherical symmetry makes it easier to observe droplets' behavior and to craft the calculations that explain it, Williams said.

During the space shuttle missions, he and colleagues used to work around the clock at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Williams and colleagues also took their families to Cape Canaveral to watch space shuttle Columbia take off in July 1997, when it was carrying a microgravity combustion experiment they designed.

William's interest in combustion dates back to his undergraduate days at Princeton. He was taking a graduate-level course. His professor wrote out on the blackboard the conservation equations of combustion.

"When I realized how complicated they were, I said to myself that there is enough there to last me a lifetime," Williams explained.

Willams' colleagues on the FLEX and FLEX-2 experiments are: Frederick Dryer, of Princeton; Mun Choi, of the University of Connecticut; Benjamin Shaw at UC Davis; Tom Avedisian of Cornell; Vedha Nayagam at the National Center for Space Exploration Research; Michael Hicks, Daniel Dietrich and others from NASA's Glenn Research Center.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Mojave CA (SPX) Feb 03, 2012 - XCOR Aerospace and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announce the final week to register and become eligible to win a suborbital research flight on XCOR's Lynx I vehicle at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC-2012) in Palo Alto, CA on February 27-29. The deadline for early conference registration and for entering the drawing is the 10th of February at nsrc.swri.org.

"We don't want the researcher, educator or student attending NSRC-2012 to register late and miss this great opportunity to advance their work," said Andrew Nelson, Chief Operating Officer of XCOR Aerospace.

"We want as many as possible going to NSRC-2012 to experience the possibilities of reusable suborbital research opportunities and have the chance to win a flight that would otherwise cost $95,000 on Lynx, or up to $200,000 on competing suborbital vehicles."

XCOR Aerospace, the industry leader in fully reusable manned rocket-powered spacecraft for suborbital research operations and SwRI, globally recognized as a leader in the suborbital research field, have made this flight available to promote the start of this revolutionary new capability for the educational, microgravity, atmospheric and astronomical research community.

An additional highlight of the meeting will be a keynote speech by former Apollo astronaut and X-15 Pilot Neil Armstrong. Mr. Armstrong will be speaking about his experience flying some of the first and most ground breaking suborbital research flights.

Additional NSRC invited speakers include XCOR's Andrew Nelson speaking about Lynx development, Challenger Center Founding Director June Scobee Rodgers who will fly as a teacher in space, SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, and NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Pete Worden. Engaging panels will bring together researchers in the microgravity, life, planetary, and atmospheric sciences with suborbital vehicle providers, market/policy analysts, educators, and many others.

Further program highlights include an exciting anchor keynote presentation by FAA Commercial Space Transportation Associate Administrator Dr. George Nield and a NASA Flight Opportunities Program workshop.

"NSRC-2012 is providing the first ever opportunity for a researcher or educator to win a suborbital research flight and to hear from suborbital research pioneers," said Dr. Alan Stern, former NASA Associate Administrator for Science, and now Associate Vice President of Research and Development for the Space Science and Engineering Division at SwRI.

"In addition NSRC attendees will hear from colleagues across numerous fields, the suborbital flight community, and government officials about the state of this new industry and where it is headed. NSRC-2012 advance registration closes on 10 Feb, so get your seat and your chance to fly for free on XCOR now!"

Registrants are encouraged to read the Official Contest Rules available on the XCOR website

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Feb 03, 2012 - NASA has received the National Research Council (NRC) report "NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities," which provides the agency with findings and recommendations on where best to invest in technologies needed to enable NASA's future missions in space. The NRC report will help define NASA's technology development priorities in the years to come.

One year ago, NASA provided 14 draft space technology area roadmaps to the NRC and asked the council to examine and prioritize technologies for the agency. The technologies were prioritized in each of the 14 areas and then across all categories.

The report finalizes the NRC's review and identifies 16 top-priority technologies necessary for NASA's future missions, which also could benefit American aerospace industries and the nation. The 16 were chosen by the NRC from its own ranking of 83 high-priority technologies out of approximately 300 identified in the roadmaps.

"The report strongly reaffirms the vital importance of technology development to enable the agency's future missions and grow the nation's new technology economy," said Mason Peck, chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

"The report confirms the value of our technology development strategy to date. NASA currently invests in all of the highest-priority technologies and will study the report and adjust its investment portfolio as needed."

The technology priorities the report identifies are aligned with NASA missions to extend and sustain human activities beyond low Earth orbit, explore the evolution of the solar system and the potential for life elsewhere, and expand our understanding of Earth and the universe in which we live.

The report observes that "technological breakthroughs have been the foundation of virtually every NASA success. In addition, technological advances have yielded benefits far beyond space itself in down-to-Earth applications." It also states "future U.S. leadership in space requires a foundation of sustained technology advances."

During the coming months, NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist will lead an agency-wide analysis and coordination effort to update the 14 technology area roadmaps with the NRC report's findings and recommendations.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Feb 02, 2012 - A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of dollars it was going to take to make things right.

And then they found out how to fix it for the cost of an extra value meal.

The problem facing Ares 1 wasn't a booster malfunction or a computer glitch. It was simple cause-and-effect physics. During the final stages of a launch, as the solid booster rocket burns down it makes the entire vehicle oscillate rapidly. Add that oscillation to the resonant frequency of the large tube that separates the booster and the crew cabin, and you get a crew capsule that vibrates like crazy.

When humans are vibrating to that extent, it's impossible for them to read a digital display. If the astronauts can't read, they can't do their jobs. If they can't do their jobs, no more mission.

To evaluate the extent of the problem, NASA called in its Human Factors Division. They're the ones who study human perception and performance, from very basic research to very applied research.

In fact, they were the ones who had done the most recent round of vibration tests: 50 years ago, for the Gemini project, back when displays were analog, steam-actuated dials and gauges instead of the computer screens of today. Cockpits, like everything else, have changed a lot since those days. It was time for some new tests.

Step one was to set up a chair so it would vibrate purely in an up-down motion (or in-out, if you're lying on your back like an astronaut would be), which is how the launch vehicle was predicted to shake.

The vibrational frequency of the rocket would be 12 hertz (on average, but it would fluctuate between 10Hz and 13Hz) so they needed something that could hit that range exactly. Luckily, that technology already existed; the same mechanism that causes your chair to shake in simulation rides at amusement park made for a perfect prototype.

The engineers also knew that as Ares I gained speed the shake would increase. They calculated that toward the final stage, when astronauts would be already subjected to 4 G's of acceleration, they would be getting an additional 0.7 G's of vibration. As NASA slowly ramped up testing in the chair, they discovered that at 0.7 G's even the largest numbers on the digitized display were almost entirely illegible.

Houston, we have a major effing problem.

Plans were drawn up to reduce the vibrations. Spring and counter-firing motors. Hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. Added years of development and implementation. A nearly insurmountable setback.

And then the people in the Vibration Lab had a really, really good idea: By simply strobing the display in time with the vibration, they could kill this problem altogether. They bought a handful of circuits that only cost a few bucks, hooked them up to the screen, and set it to strobe at 12Hz. And it worked!

Well, almost.

The readability was vastly improved, but it wasn't perfect. The chair was vibrating at 12Hz and the screen was strobing at 12Hz, but they weren't perfectly in sync. The text was more visible, sure, but it looked like it was swimming around.

NASA could do better. So they grabbed a few accelerometers and attached them to the chair. With the vibration and the strobing now perfectly in sync, the display became crystal clear. And the final cost was a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what they'd anticipated. Victory.

If it sounds too simple to actually work, believe me, I felt the same way until I saw it with my own eyes during a recent visit to NASA Ames. My guides were only willing to take me up to 0.5 G's, but even at that rate the smallest column of numbers was completely illegible. As soon as they flipped on strobing?

I could see it perfectly. The effect was stunning. We did our best to show the before/after by putting our camera on the sled, but the image-stabilization was just too damn good (well played, Sony. Well played). You'll have to take my word for it.

Because it was also important to know if the system worked while vibrating and feeling the real, face-melting G-forces that astronauts experience, NASA's big brains have incorporated a similar strobing/vibrating rig into the iconic G-force simulation centrifuge. They wouldn't let me anywhere near that thing without all kinds of medical evaluations. Begging, bribery, and tearful theatrics proved ineffective. Maybe someday.

NASA has a patent pending on the technology, although the problems it solves are decidedly not NASA-specific; helicopters, planes, and fast-moving boats have similar vibrational issues, so it's very possible we'll see this implemented elsewhere. I just want to sync my TV up to a shiatsu massage chair. Nobody blurs my Beyonce.

So while the the Ares I rocket has been grounded, there's no question this research will live on and be implemented in NASA's next launch vehicle. It's nice to know that the next generation of astronauts will be able to see what they're doing, and that it didn't cost the tax-payers hundreds of millions of dollars. Good deal.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Feb 02, 2012 - During the next five years, NASA technology development efforts should focus on 16 high-priority technologies and their associated top technical challenges, says a new report from the National Research Council. In addition, the report recommends emphasis on flight demonstrations for technologies that are nearly ready and a 10 percent allocation from the existing program budget to advance and refine early emerging technologies.

"It has been years since NASA has had a vigorous, broad-based program in advanced space technology development," said Raymond Colladay, president of RC Space Enterprises Inc., and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "Success in executing future NASA space missions will depend on advanced developments that should already be under way."

The 16 high-priority technologies were selected with input from the external technical community as part of NASA's draft technology roadmaps and include items such as radiation mitigation; guidance, navigation, and control; nuclear systems for both power generation and transportation; and solar power generation (see full table below).

These priorities were chosen to align with three main facets of NASA's overall mission: extending and sustaining human activities beyond low Earth orbit; exploring the evolution of the solar system and the potential for life elsewhere; and expanding our understanding of Earth and the universe.

The report sets forth an evaluation framework to prioritize which technologies to emphasize in the next five years of the 20- to 30-year window. NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) should establish a rigorous process to select among competing technologies at appropriate milestones in order to ensure that the most promising ones receive sufficient attention and resources.

The report also recommends that OCT pursue cooperative development of high-priority technologies with other government agencies and the U.S. commercial space industry to leverage resources.

For technologies deemed closer to implementation, flight demonstrations, while expensive, are sometimes essential to transition a technology to an operational system, the report stipulates. Such technology flight demonstrations should be considered on a case-by-case basis when there is ample support from the user, including a reasonable level of cost-sharing.

To further foster collaboration, OCT should make the scientific and technical data that NASA has acquired from past and present space missions and technology development more readily available to U.S. industry, the report adds. This should include companies that do not have an ongoing working relationship with NASA and that are pursuing their own commercial goals, which may differ from NASA's science and exploration missions.

"If NASA can sustain implementation of its technology roadmaps - shaped by the priorities recommended in this study - they will form a solid foundation," said Colladay. "This foundation will support a breadth of NASA missions, as well as commercial and national needs, and provide the agency with the means to achieve its long-term goals."

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:06:57 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D