Michael Cabbage
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
mcabbage@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 12-430
NASA MAKES UNPRECEDENTED RETURN TO MARS, ADVANCES COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT AND ADDS TO ITS AMAZING RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES IN 2012
WASHINGTON -- In 2012, NASA continued to implement America's ambitious
space exploration program, landing the most sophisticated rover on
the surface of Mars, carrying out the first-ever commercial mission
to the International Space Station and advancing the systems needed
to send humans deeper into space.
"NASA achieved historic milestones this year landing the most
sophisticated rover on the surface of Mars, carrying out the first
ever commercial mission to the space station and continuing to
advance the systems needed to send humans deeper into space -- beyond
the moon, to an asteroid and on to Mars," NASA Administrator Charles
Bolden said. "We are able to keep the United States the world leader
in space exploration -- and continue to implement America's
bipartisan space plan -- because of our talented and dedicated work
force."
The following are some of NASA's top stories this year:
NASA LANDS CAR-SIZE ROVER BESIDE MARTIAN MOUNTAIN
Undertaking the most complex landing ever attempted in planetary
exploration, NASA successfully placed the most advanced robotic rover
on Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory mission carrying the one-ton
rover named Curiosity, touched down in August. Almost immediately,
Curiosity sent back pictures of its landing site at Gale Crater with
the eventual destination of Mount Sharp in the background. Since
then, Curiosity has checked out its 10 science instruments, sent back
detailed photos and weather observations and "tasted" Martian soil.
Key mission findings during the first three months after the landing
include conglomerate rocks bearing rounded pebbles as evidence of
vigorous ancient stream flow right in the area where Curiosity
landed; mineral composition of Martian soil similar to soils in
Hawaii that contain volcanic glass; and the first assessment of the
natural radiation environment that future astronauts will encounter
on the surface of Mars.
Curiosity's planned two-year prime mission will be to explore and
assess a local region on the surface of Mars as a potential habitat
for life, past or present. In addition, the landing technology for
putting such a large payload safely on the Martian surface could help
with plans for future human Mars missions.
On Dec. 4, NASA announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program,
including a new robotic science rover based on the Curiosity design
set to launch in 2020. The planned portfolio includes the Curiosity
and Opportunity rovers; two NASA spacecraft and contributions to one
European spacecraft currently orbiting Mars; the 2013 launch of the
Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter to study the
Martian upper atmosphere; the Interior Exploration using Seismic
Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which
will take the first look into the deep interior of Mars; and
participation in ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including
providing "Electra" telecommunication radios to ESA's 2016 mission
and a critical element of the premier astrobiology instrument on the
2018 ExoMars rover. With InSight, there will be a total of seven NASA
missions operating or being planned to study and explore our
Earth-like neighbor.
The 2020 mission will constitute another step toward being responsive
to high-priority science goals and the president's challenge of
sending humans to Mars orbit in the 2030s.
http://www.nasa.gov/marsNASA ADVANCES COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT, HELPS MAKE HISTORY
A Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Dragon spacecraft
successfully resupplied the International Space Station and returned
cargo back to Earth in October, completing NASA's first contracted
cargo delivery flight.
Under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract, SpaceX will fly at
least 12 cargo missions to the space station through 2016. The Dragon
launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 882 pounds of cargo,
including crew supplies, scientific research and hardware. Dragon
returned almost twice that amount of cargo, including a freezer
packed with research samples collected in the orbiting laboratory's
unique microgravity environment. These samples will help advance
multiple scientific disciplines on Earth and provide critical data on
the effects of long-duration spaceflight on the human body. The
ability to return frozen samples is a first for this flight and will
be tremendously beneficial to the station's research community. Not
since the space shuttle have NASA and its international partners been
able to return considerable amounts of research and samples for
analysis.
SpaceX is one of two companies that built and tested new cargo
spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services
(COTS) program. SpaceX completed its final demonstration test flight
in May, becoming the first commercial company ever to launch,
rendezvous and be docked to the International Space Station. Orbital
Sciences is the other company participating in COTS. Orbital's
Antares launch vehicle is on the launch pad at Wallops Flight
Facility in Virginia in advance of a hot fire test of the Antares
first-stage engines. A flight test of the Antares with a simulated
Cygnus spacecraft and a demonstration flight of Cygnus to the space
station are planned for 2013.
With commercial cargo flights to the space station under way in 2012,
NASA took the next steps in the effort to launch Americans from U.S.
soil again. The agency announced in August new agreements with three
American commercial companies to design and develop the next
generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch
of astronauts from the United States in the next five years.
Advances made by these companies under Space Act Agreements through
the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap)
initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of
commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial
customers. The CCiCap partners are the Sierra Nevada Corporation,
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), and The Boeing Company.
CCiCap is an initiative of NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) and an
administration priority. The objective of the CCP is to facilitate
the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation
capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and
cost-effective access to and from the International Space Station and
low-Earth orbit. Between now and May 31, 2014, NASA's partners will
perform tests and mature integrated designs. This would then set the
stage for a future activity that will launch crewed orbital
demonstration missions to low-Earth orbit by the middle of the
decade.
http://www.nasa.gov/commercialSPACE STATION FULLY OPERATIONAL WITH NEW RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
TESTING
NASA and its international partners celebrated 12 years of permanent
human habitation on the International Space Station on Nov. 2. More
than 1,500 research and technology development experiments have been
conducted aboard the orbiting lab -- more than 200 of them this year
alone -- many of which are producing advances in medicine,
environmental systems and our understanding of the universe.
Human research studies, including new research announced in August,
have shown that using the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device for
high-intensity workouts aboard the orbiting laboratory, in
combination with proper diets, helps astronauts lose less bone
density during their stay. This could have profound effects on future
space exploration, as well as the aging population on Earth.
Plant-growth studies are often on the menu, as the ability to grow
plants in microgravity would allow for fresh food, oxygen generation
and carbon dioxide removal. This research also could help improve
crop production on the ground.
Several new facilities delivered to the space station this year allow
for an array of new research projects. The Japanese Experiment Module
Small Satellite Orbital Deployer changes the way mini satellites now
can be deployed to their optimal orbit, allowing for greater
flexibility, operational control and significant monetary savings.
The Aquatic Habitat received its first inhabitants, translucent
Medaka fish, allowing for easy observation of their skeletal systems,
which gives more insight into bone and muscle atrophy, which are
medical issues for astronauts and the aging population, and radiation
effects. A Gravitational Biology Lab also was delivered to station.
The centrifuge allows for biological experimentation in artificial
gravity -- from zero gravity to twice Earth's normal gravity -- for
prolonged periods of time. This facility provides environmental
control, lighting, data transfer, commanding and observation of
experiments in Mars and moon gravity conditions, as well as mimicking
Earth's gravity. The centrifuge is useful for biological organism
research and could lead to advances in medications and vaccines,
agricultural controls and discoveries in genetics -- all beneficial
to people on Earth.
http://www.nasa.gov/stationWORK UNDER WAY FOR FIRST LAUNCHES OF NASA'S NEW SPACECRAFT AND ROCKET
In July, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida welcomed the arrival
of the agency's first space-bound Orion capsule, marking a major
milestone in the construction of the spacecraft that will carry
astronauts farther into space than ever before. Orion will be the
most advanced spacecraft ever designed, sustaining astronauts during
space travel, providing safe re-entry from deep space and emergency
abort capability.
The Orion at Kennedy will launch on Exploration Flight Test-1, an
uncrewed mission planned for 2014. The spacecraft will travel 3,600
miles above the Earth's surface, 15 times farther than the
International Space Station's orbital position. The primary flight
objective is to understand Orion's heat shield performance at speeds
generated during a return from deep space.
NASA and its industry partners around the country also made swift
progress on the Space Launch System (SLS) this year, testing and
developing new components and improving on existing hardware. New
construction on the largest rocket ever built is enabled by existing,
proven technology, like the space shuttle main engines that will
power the first stage of the rocket. The new J-2X engine, which is
targeted to power the upper stage of the rocket, underwent a battery
of tests that broke duration records and pushed the engine design to
its limits.
The Orion, SLS, and Ground Systems Development and Operations programs
also reached their critical milestones this year each with an
approved system requirement review and system definition review.
Those pivotal steps allowed these programs to move from concept into
its preliminary design phase and all remain on target for its first
flight test in 2017.
http://www.nasa.gov/explorationNASA'S HUBBLE PROVIDES FIRST CENSUS OF GALAXIES NEAR COSMIC DAWN
Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers announced Dec. 12
they have seen further back in time than ever before and have
uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies
that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was
less than 3 percent of its present age. The deepest images to date
from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies
that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies
first formed.
The greater depth of the new Hubble images, together with a carefully
designed survey strategy, allows this work to go further than
previous studies, thereby providing what researchers say is the first
reliable galaxy census of this epoch. Notably, one of the galaxies
may be a distance record breaker, observed 380 million years after
the birth of our universe in the theorized big bang.
Looking deeper into the universe also means peering further back in
time. The universe is estimated to be 13.7 billion years old. The
newly discovered galaxies are seen as they looked 350 to 600 million
years after the big bang. Their light is just arriving at Earth now.
http://www.nasa.gov/hubbleICE SHEET LOSS AT BOTH POLES INCREASING
An international team of experts supported by NASA and the European
Space Agency combined data from multiple satellites and aircraft to
produce the most comprehensive and accurate assessment to date of ice
sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica and their contributions to
sea level rise.
The combined rate of melting for the ice sheets covering Greenland and
Antarctica increased during the last 20 years. Together, these ice
sheets are losing more than three times as much ice each year as they
were in the 1990s. About two-thirds of the loss is coming from
Greenland, with the rest from Antarctica.
The study announced in November was produced by an international
collaboration -- the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise
-- that combined observations from 10 satellite missions to develop
the first consistent measurement of polar ice sheet changes.
Satellite data from NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite
(ICESat) and the NASA/German Aerospace Center's Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE) missions were included in the study.
This activity was a major challenge involving cutting-edge, difficult
research to produce the most rigorous and detailed estimates of ice
loss from Greenland and Antarctica to date.
http://go.nasa.gov/TtJdjCNASA'S AERONAUTICS RESEARCH WORKS TO MAKE A SILENT SONIC BOOM
NASA is continuing to learn more about how sound waves created by
supersonic aircraft move through the atmosphere, all with an eye
towards designing aircraft that generate sonic booms you can barely
hear -- or can't hear at all -- on the ground below. This work could
open a whole new segment of the economy for commercial aviation by
making supersonic flight over land acceptable.
Following a series of research flights last year, NASA engineers in
2012 poured over information they gathered from residents near
Edwards Air Force Base in California to see how well they did in
generating sonic booms with NASA's F/A-18 jet that could barely be
heard on the ground. The Waveforms and Sonic boom Perception and
Response, or WSPR, project gathered data from a select group of more
than 100 volunteers. A final report on the study is due soon.
Another phase of this research began in 2012 with the Farfield
Investigation of No Boom Threshold, or FaINT. Using NASA's F/A-18
supersonic jet, project researchers will try to better understand
what's happening at the very edge of the sonic boom, or just beyond.
http://go.nasa.gov/u6XM5Aand
http://go.nasa.gov/SlkdL2SPACE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM SHARPENS CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES
With a new set of Space Technology Roadmaps as a guide, NASA's Office
of the Chief Technologist and the Space Technology Program continued
to make great strides in creating the new knowledge and capabilities
needed for NASA's current and future missions in 2012. NASA's Space
Technology Program is innovating, developing, testing, and flying
technology for use in NASA's future missions and by the greater
aerospace community. With more than 800 projects under way, many of
which are partnering with universities and industry, the program
continues to meet milestones and advance NASA's technology
capabilities.
This year, NASA's Space Technology Program launched and successfully
demonstrated a hypersonic inflatable reentry vehicle, proving that
inflatable heat shields are viable for safely slowing large-mass
payloads during their fiery entry through planetary atmospheres, like
those of Earth or Mars.
NASA continues to invest in and create new enabling robotic
technologies that aid in future exploration while also having
applications here one Earth, potentially helping paraplegics walk and
aiding in other medical rehabilitation efforts. Investments in
improved woven thermal protection systems also made strides this year
using commercially available 3-D weaving techniques, reducing life
cycle costs and allowing for sustainable and scalable space missions.
Rebuilding the bridge to new ideas and the nation's top talent, Space
Technology is engaging in more than 350 activities with approximately
100 universities and academic institutions through fellowships,
direct competitive awards and partnerships with NASA centers, and
commercial contractors for its technology developments and
demonstrations.
In addition, NASA technologies continue to create thousands of jobs
and revenue while significantly improving the quality of life for
millions of people here on Earth.
http://www.nasa.gov/octNASA EDUCATION PROVIDES HANDS-ON LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
NASA's 2012 Summer of Innovation program continued to offer a variety
of programs to provide summer learning opportunities to students and
teachers. The program reached approximately 42,000 students in grades
4-9 across the country, many of whom fell within the agency's target
audience of underrepresented and underserved students. The program
also provided professional development for more than 3,200 middle
school teachers nationwide to help them improve their ability to
teach STEM content in the classroom.
http://www.nasa.gov/soiSPACECRAFT FINDS NEW EVIDENCE FOR ICE ON MERCURY
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging
(MESSENGER) spacecraft provided compelling support for the long-held
hypothesis the planet harbors abundant water ice and other frozen
volatile materials within its permanently shadowed polar craters.
The spacecraft's onboard instruments have been studying Mercury in
unprecedented detail since its historic arrival there in March 2011.
Scientists are seeing clearly for the first time a chapter in the
story of how the inner planets, including Earth, acquired their water
and some of the chemical building blocks for life.
The new data announced in December indicated the water ice in
Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of
Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick. Given its
proximity to the sun, Mercury would seem to be an unlikely place to
find ice, however, there are pockets at the planet's poles that never
see sunlight.
http://www.nasa.gov/messengerIBEX SPACECRAFT REVEALS NEW OBSERVATIONS OF INTERSTELLAR MATTER
NASA announced in January its Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)
spacecraft captured the best and most complete glimpse yet of what
lies beyond the solar system -- observations that show our solar
system is different than the space right outside it. The new
measurements give clues about how and where our solar system formed,
the forces that physically shape our solar system, and the history of
other stars in the Milky Way.
The spacecraft observed four separate types of atoms, including
hydrogen, oxygen, neon and helium. These interstellar atoms are the
byproducts of older stars, which spread across the galaxy and fill
the vast space between stars. IBEX determined the distribution of
these elements outside the solar system that are flowing charged and
neutral particles, which blow through the galaxy.
IBEX also measured the interstellar wind traveling at a slower speed
than previously measured by the Ulysses spacecraft, and from a
different direction. The improved measurements from IBEX show a 20
percent difference in how much pressure the interstellar wind exerts
on our heliosphere. Measuring the pressure on our heliosphere from
the material in the galaxy and from the magnetic fields out there
will help determine the size and shape of our solar system as it
travels through the galaxy.
http://www.nasa.gov/ibexWISE MISSION SEES SKIES ABLAZE WITH BLAZARS
Astronomers announced in April they were actively hunting a class of
supermassive black holes throughout the universe called blazars
thanks to data collected by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer. The mission revealed more than 200 blazars to date with the
potential for finding thousands more.
Blazars are among the most energetic objects in the universe. They
consist of supermassive black holes actively "feeding," or pulling
matter onto them, at the cores of giant galaxies. As the matter is
dragged toward the supermassive hole, some of the energy is released
in the form of jets traveling at nearly the speed of light. The
findings ultimately will help researchers understand the extreme
physics behind super-fast jets and the evolution of supermassive
black holes in the early universe.
http://www.nasa.gov/wiseSPACE SHUTTLES ARRIVE AT NEW HOMES
With the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, the
shuttles themselves were delivered in 2012 to their new homes, where
they will begin a new chapter in their careers: inspiring
museum-goers of all ages to reach for the stars.
Discovery arrived at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and
Space Museum in Dulles, Virginia, in April; Enterprise was unveiled
at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York in July;
Endeavour was moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles
in October; and Atlantis was relocated to the Kennedy Space Center
Visitor Complex in Florida in November.
http://go.nasa.gov/vEab9ANASA'S SOCIAL MEDIA AND INTERNET TEAMS CONNECT WITH THE PUBLIC
NASA's social media activities continued to evolve in 2012. With more
than 3.2 million Twitter followers on the agency's flagship account
@NASA, more than a million on Facebook, and a growing audience of
hundreds of thousands on Google+, NASA is connecting directly with
more people to share the agency's activities, people and mission.
NASA's online media teams provided live coverage of several major
agency events and milestones, including this year's historic SpaceX
launches to the International Space Station, the Transit of Venus and
the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars. In each event, the agency
shattered records for new levels of online engagement with live
updates of each event that reached millions, and in the case of
Curiosity -- billions, of people.
During the August Mars Curiosity rover landing, NASA's website
received 15 million visits and sent out 36 million webcast streams of
NASA TV, breaking records that had just been set during the Venus
Transit (4.2 million website visits, 7.7 million webcast streams). In
October, Curiosity checked-in on Foursquare from Gale Crater, making
it the first time a check-in has happened on another planet. The two
events contributed to record traffic to the site, 185 million visits
through Nov. 30, up from 151 million for 2011.
For the first time, visits to NASA.gov from mobile devices contributed
a significant amount of traffic, totaling more than 10 percent of all
visits. The site was honored with its fifth People's Voice Webby for
best government site, and for the first time received the judges'
Webby award as well. NASA.gov also was chosen by Time magazine as one
of the 50 Best Websites of 2012.
NASA transitioned our in-person social media events from NASA Tweetups
to NASA Socials, included more social media platforms and held the
agency's first multi-NASA center social for Curiosity's landing.
NASA's social media teams held 16 events, bringing more than 1,000
people into NASA and other facilities.
The agency also worked to integrated social media into more daily news
processes than ever before. From inviting social media followers to
participate in NASA news briefings and events to being able to
virtually attend events held for news media, such as the Orion
capsule arrival at Kennedy Space Center in July. NASA also offered
more than a dozen opportunities to ask questions of agency officials
using #askNASA, including in several Google+ Hangouts, providing
additional direct interaction points between the public and NASA.
http://www.nasa.gov/connectand
http://www.nasa.govA little more than a year after the final shuttle mission, NASA helped
return cargo flights to the International Space Station from U.S.
soil, furthered the development of U.S. commercial spaceflight
systems to transport astronauts to the space station and made
progress toward the first launches of NASA's new deep-space
spacecraft and heavy-lift rocket. Complemented by key research and
technology products to enable long journeys into space, NASA
continued making the investments in 2012 required to undertake this
new era of deep space exploration.
NASA Television's Video File newsfeed will include items featuring
these top stories beginning at noon EST, Dec. 17. For NASA TV
streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntvNASA's website will highlight these stories and more also starting at
noon on Dec. 17. Visit:
http://www.nasa.gov
