CAC Fall 2011 Board Members




 Michael Hernandez – Project Lead

Center: Johnson Space Center

 School: University of Houston

 Major: Accounting

 Co-op Since: Fall 2011

 Hobbies: Softball, volleyball, composing and performing classical music, dogs

 Area Currently Working In: Travel Accounting, Strategic Architecture Integration Team

 Favorite Co-op Memory: Watching Apollo 13 in Historic Mission Control with the ACTUAL flight director present

 Why is CAC important to you?:  Integrating the future generations of the space program is important for the development of human spaceflight.

 

Jeff Chin – Glenn Center Director

Center: Glenn Research Center

School: Case Western Reserve University

Major: Aerospace Engineering & Mechanical Engineering

Minor: Economics

Co-op Since: Summer 2010

Hobbies: Rowing, Cycling, Robotics

Area Currently Working In: Supersonics, Multidisciplinary Design, Analysis and Optimization

Favorite Co-op Memory: Meeting the STS-135 crew

Why is CAC important to you?:  Working at NASA gives me the opportunity to interact with the leading experts from multiple generations . CAC is one of the best opportunities to network with peers of the next generation.

Samantha Shine – Marshall Center Director

Center: Marshall Space Flight Center

School: University of Alabama in Huntsville

Major: Industrial and Systems Engineering

Co-op Since: August 2009

Hobbies:  Traveling, Reading, Yoga, Cooking and Baking

Area Currently Working in: Ground Operations and Logistics

Favorite Co-op Memory: Definitely meeting astronauts. Also, the opportunities to reach out to local kids interested in STEM fields.

Why is CAC important to you?: It is such an amazing opportunity to see what other co-ops are working on at other NASA centers and to interact with co-ops across the country.

Kyle Yawn – Johnson Center Director

Center: Johnson Space Center

School: Georgia Institute of Technology

Major: Aerospace Engineering

Co-op Since: Fall 2010

Hobbies: Traveling, Reading, Hiking, High Powered Rocketry, Sports, Writing, Exploring, Pondering

Area Currently Working In: International Space Station Mechanisms and Maintenance Group (OSO)

Favorite Co-op Memory: I had the privilege during my first co-op tour to work on two different flight projects for the ISS.  I was able to conduct all the certification testing and inspections for both pieces of hardware and they flew to the space station before my tour ended.  It is pretty awesome to know that hardware I had a hand in designing is now on the ISS.

Why is CAC important to you? I have been able to work at multiple centers and know that we each do something different and can learn from each other.  CAC is teaching the next generation of NASA employees about the value of communication between centers and the sharing of information and ideas among our fellow co-ops.

When the International Space Station is Finished in 2020, We’re Crashing It Into the Ocean

In what is sure to be one of the most–if not the most–expensive crashes ever, Russia’s space agency said today that when the International Space Station has completed its life cycle in 2020, it will be crashed into the ocean.

By our count, that’s a $4.5 billion crash (that’s not counting the more than $2 billion per year spent to keep the ISS in service since 1998). But better to crash in the ocean than in orbit, Roskosmos’s (that’s the Russian space agency) deputy head said today. The ISS is simply too big to leave in orbit–a collision with something up there could lead to a huge proliferation in orbiting space junk.

It’s the same fate that met the Mir in 2001, which Russia deorbited and sank in the Pacific. If I were the head of a major television network, I’d be trying to secure the rights to the next impact now. A multibillion piece of sophisticated orbiting space habitat is sure to make a serious splash.

 

 

J-2X Rocket Engine Begins Testing

NASA conducted a combined chill test and 1.9-second ignition test July 14 of the next-generation J-2X rocket engine that could help carry humans beyond low-Earth orbit to deep space.

The test at John C. Stennis Space Center is the first in a series of tests that will be conducted on the J-2X engine, which is being developed for NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The ignition test on the A-2 Test Stand is the first of a series of firings over the next several months. Collected data will verify the engine functions as designed.

The J-2X engine uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as fuel, which can be mixed to generate 294,000 pounds of thrust to lift a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit or 242,000 pounds of thrust to power a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit into deep space. The engine is designed to start and restart in space.  (www.nasa.gov)

J-2X Burp Test

STS-135 Countdown Rehearsal Today

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:12:16 AM EDT

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, the four Atlantis astronauts put on their bright orange launch-and-entry suits and traveled to Launch Pad 39A aboard the Astrovan, just as they will on launch day a couple of weeks from now. Climbing into space shuttle Atlantis, they are participating in the countdown dress rehearsal.

The crew members will wrap up their on-site training today at Kennedy before departing from the Shuttle Landing Facility for the flight back to their home base at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. At Johnson, they’ll continue their training for the final space shuttle flight, the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station. The targeted launch date of July 8 will have the crew returning to Kennedy on July 4.

Work at the launch pad continues as technicians are scanning the bottom portions of the stringers on Atlantis’ external fuel tank, and no issues have been found. A mass spectrometer external leak check of the shuttle’s engine No. 3′s main fuel valve was completed, and technicians now are installing insulation. A full retest of the valve is set for this weekend. (www.nasa.gov)

In front of Atlantis

Robonaut 2

Almost 200 people from 15 countries have visited the International Space Station, but the orbiting complex has so far only ever had human crew members – until now.

Robonaut 2, the latest generation of the Robonaut astronaut helpers, is set to launch to the space station aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission. It will be the first humanoid robot in space, and although its primary job for now is teaching engineers how dexterous robots behave in space, the hope is that through upgrades and advancements, it could one day venture outside the station to help spacewalkers make repairs or additions to the station or perform scientific work.

R2, as the robot is called, will launch inside the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module, which will be packed with supplies and equipment for the station and then installed permanently on the Unity node. Once R2 is unpacked – likely several months after it arrives – it will initially be operated inside the Destiny laboratory for operational testing, but over time both its territory and its applications could expand. There are no plans to return R2 to Earth.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/robonaut.html

http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/ISS/

Microsoft’s Interactive Maps

Have some fun with Microsoft’s universe tours!

http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/Home.aspx

SOFIA: First Light

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a next- generation airborne observatory designed to provide astronomers routine access to the infrared and sub-millimeter part of the electromagnetic spectrum. SOFIA was initiated by NASA’s Science and Mission Directorate as an integral element of an overall strategy to obtain data to better understand the nature and evolution of the universe, the origin and evolution of galaxies, stars, and planetary systems, and the conditions which led to the origins of life. The SOFIA program is a joint effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Deutsches Zentrum für Luftund Raumfahrt (DRL), the German Space Agency.

On May 26, 2010 the SOFIA Program achieved a major milestone with its first in-flight night observations. The highly modified SOFIA Boeing 747SP fitted with a 2.5 m diameter reflecting telescope took off from its home base at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility (DAOF) in Palmdale, California at sunset on May 25, 2010. In-flight personnel consisted of an international crew from NASA, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) in Columbia, Md., Cornell University and the German SOFIA Institute (DSI) in Stuttgart. During the six-hour flight, at altitudes up to 35,000 feet, the crew of 10 scientists, astronomers, engineers and technicians gathered telescope performance data at consoles in SOFIA’s main cabin. The goal of the SOFIA First Light Flight was to characterize the performance of the German- made telescope and integrate the telescope’s systems/subsystems with the first flown science instrument. “First Light” is a term astronomers use to describe the first viewing with a new telescope.  SOFIA returned to the NASA DAOF at approximately 5:30 A.M. on May 26^th with an ecstatic mission crew and it first images captured by the telescope and USRA’s Cornell University’s FORCAST science instrument.

SOFIA evaluates Jupiter in infrared using its first flown science instrument, FORCAST.

The stability and precise pointing of the German built telescope met and exceeded the expectations of the engineers and astronomers who put it through its paces during the flight. The main accomplishment of the night occurred when scientists on board SOFIA recorded images of Jupiter and the M82 galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation using FORCAST. The Faint Object Infrared Camera (FORCAST) is a mid-infrared diffraction-limited camera with selectable filters for simultaneous continuum imaging in two bands, within the 4-25 and 25-40 μm spectral regions. The composite infrared image of Jupiter, illustrated in Figure 1.1, at wavelengths of 5.4 (blue), 24 (green) and 37 microns (red) shows heat trapped since the formation of the planet, pouring out of Jupiter’s interior through holes in its clouds.

FORCAST captured in minutes images that would require many hour-long exposures by ground-based observatories blocked from a clear infrared view by water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere. The SOFIA’s operational altitude, which is above more than 99 percent of that water vapor, allows it to receive 80 percent or more the infrared light accessible to space observatories.

The success of the First Light Flight begins SOFIA on a 20-year journey that will enable a wide variety of astronomical science observatories not possible from ground-based observatories and it also proves SOFIA will provide scientists with Great Observatory-class astronomical science.

The SOFIA program is managed at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The NASA Ames Research Center manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with USRA and DSI.

For further information see the NASA Dryden homepage.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/SOFIA/index.html

Information above is compiled from NASA sources.