On Aug. 5, 2010, an enormous chunk of ice, about 251 square kilometers (97 square miles) in size, or roughly four times the size of Manhattan, broke off the Petermann Glacier along the northwestern coast of Greenland. The Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 70-kilometer-long (40-miles) floating ice shelf, according to researchers at the University of Delaware, Newark, Dela. The recently calved iceberg is the largest to form in the Arctic in 50 years.

Icebergs calving off the Petermann Glacier are not unusual. Petermann Glacier's floating ice tongue is the Northern Hemisphere's largest, and it has occasionally calved large icebergs.

Scientists are monitoring the movement of the iceberg closely. If it moves out into the narrow Nares Strait, there is the potential it could interfere with or block the loss of Arctic sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean into Baffin Bay, a sea that connects the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. The ice could also eventually pose a hazard to shipping.

This image of Petermann Glacier and the new iceberg was acquired from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft on Aug. 12, 2010. It covers an area of 49.5 by 31.5 kilometers (30.7 by 19.5 miles) and is located at 81.1 degrees north latitude, 61.7 degrees west longitude.

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-268

Where you live may say a lot about your socioeconomic status. It also may suggest how vulnerable you are to long periods of excessively hot weather.

Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Arizona State University and the University of California at Riverside are studying the relationship between temperature variations and socioeconomic variables across metropolitan Phoenix. They have found that the urban poor are the most vulnerable to extreme heat.

Those in higher incomes tend to live in areas that are cooler due to the increased amount of vegetation, such as lush lawns and canopy trees, that surrounds homes or on higher-elevation hillslopes above the hotter Salt River valley floor. The urban poor tend to live in the urban core of metro Phoenix where the heat island effect is intense. These neighborhoods are located near industrial areas, commercial centers, and transportation corridors. There are few amenities, such as parks, and the landscaping has little or no grass or trees.

Propelled by a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation as part of its Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems Program, the research team is compiling a history of the development of the metro Phoenix urban heat island. Urban heat islands result when existing soil and grass is replaced with materials such as asphalt and concrete that absorb heat during the day and reradiate it at night, thus causing increased temperatures especially during nighttime.

Sharon Harlan, a sociologist in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at ASU, has pulled together the interdisciplinary team, which is comprised of social and natural scientists, public health experts, and educators.

Harlan is excited about the potential for this pioneering research.

“The problem of heat-related deaths and illnesses is very serious,” said Harlan. “Each year, heat fatalities in the U.S. occur in greater numbers than mortality from any other type of weather disaster. Global climate changes and rapidly growing cities are likely to compound and intensify the adverse health effects of heat islands around the world. Our research is integrating data with sophisticated modeling tools to analyze urban systems while keeping health equity considerations and the well-being of vulnerable populations at the center of attention. We want our research to be used to promote better decision-making about climate adaptation in cities.”

The primary objective of the research is to study high heat wave events—unexpected long-duration heat waves. Many cities including Chicago, Phoenix and Paris have encountered these events over the past several years.

Data from numerous sources, including remotely sensed imagery from NASA, are being used to create an historical record of how temperatures and vegetation patterns changed across metro Phoenix from the early 1970s to 2000. William Stefanov, senior geoscientist with Jacobs Technology in JSC’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, is providing the orbital view of the metropolitan area.

The remotely sensed information is collected from satellites or airplanes and includes vegetation, temperature and land cover. Together it provides a map of the urban and suburban surface at a moment in time. In addition, researchers will use the data to do what is called change detection analysis. Images from one year or one season can be compared with those from another. The changes, such as those in vegetation, can be highlighted.

“We’re using a series of Landsat data for historical vegetation and surface temperature, high-resolution airborne imagery to get detailed maps of the land cover in our study neighborhoods and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, a Japanese sensor on board the NASA Terra satellite, for current surface temperature data,” said Stefanov.

An airborne data flight over Phoenix by the NASA MODIS/ASTER Simulator, or MASTER, sensor is planned for next year to coincide with a ground data collection campaign. Among other biophysical information, high-resolution measurements of ground surface temperature will be obtained from the MASTER data throughout the metropolitan area to compare with and validate other airborne and satellite data sets used in the project.

According to several global climate change models, the southwestern United States is predicted to experience higher temperatures and more droughts over the coming century. If that happens, Phoenix is expected to experience more heat wave events.

The remotely sensed data are fed into high-resolution urban climate models to build predictive simulations of what will happen to the Phoenix metropolitan area if predicted climate change occurs there. Maps of “riskscapes” produced by this project will show where people in Phoenix are most vulnerable to high heat events.

“This project has theoretical aspects, but it also has an applied focus,” said Stefanov. “We are trying to develop tools that city planners and emergency responders can use. Urban planners also can use this data so that they can help plan the city’s growth and perhaps replace materials that absorb heat with those that are more reflective.”

“A lot of urban development is taking place around the world in arid or semiarid climates,” said Stefanov. “By studying Phoenix, researchers can better understand what these developing cities may face and how their environments may change as populations expand.”

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/phoenix_heatwaves_feature.html

A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices.

The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its center. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble's cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details.

NGC 4911 and other spirals near the center of the cluster are being transformed by the gravitational tug of their neighbors. In the case of NGC 4911, wispy arcs of the galaxy's outer spiral arms are being pulled and distorted by forces from a companion galaxy (NGC 4911A), to the upper right. The resultant stripped material will eventually be dispersed throughout the core of the Coma Cluster, where it will fuel the intergalactic populations of stars and star clusters.

The Coma Cluster is home to almost 1,000 galaxies, making it one of the densest collections of galaxies in the nearby universe. It continues to transform galaxies at the present epoch, due to the interactions of close-proximity galaxy systems within the dense cluster. Vigorous star formation is triggered in such collisions.

Galaxies in this cluster are so densely packed that they undergo frequent interactions and collisions. When galaxies of nearly equal masses merge, they form elliptical galaxies. Merging is more likely to occur in the center of the cluster where the density of galaxies is higher, giving rise to more elliptical galaxies.

This natural-color Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Univ

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/island-universe.html

Gaze up at a cloud-filled sky, and you may spot the white, fluffy shape of a dragon, fish or elephant. Looking at the same sky, Graeme Stephens sees a different vision -- a possible future for Earth's climate.

Stephens, a professor at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, is principal investigator of NASA's CloudSat mission, launched in 2006 to improve our understanding of the role clouds play in our complicated climate system. Stephens says that as Earth's global temperature continues to rise, water vapor -- the most abundant greenhouse gas on Earth, which traps heat much as carbon dioxide does -- will continue to build, with uncertain results.

"We're seeing that now," Stephens said. "We just don't know what this will mean for how clouds might change, and for Earth's temperature and climate. Although a small change of clouds--for example, more low clouds--in the right direction would mitigate the effects of increased carbon dioxide, a small change of clouds in a different direction--for example, more high clouds--would amplify the warming caused by increasing carbon dioxide."

Calculating the balance between the cooling or warming effect of clouds and the warming effect of greenhouse gases is a complex problem for researchers, given their current understanding of clouds on Earth. And it's just one of many questions Stephens and fellow scientists are working to address with observations from CloudSat, an experimental satellite built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. CloudSat's goal is to learn about clouds and their effect on climate by studying them from space.

Floating Facts of Life

Clouds are an inescapable, and necessary, part of life. Aside from making for spectacular sunsets, they also create weather as we know it, from drizzly spring afternoons to the dark, dreary days of winter. "In all ways, shapes and forms, clouds influence life on Earth -- including our climate," says Stephens.

They also play a major role in making Earth habitable. As the sun's rays shine on our planet, flat, low-altitude stratus clouds reflect most of this heat back into space, keeping Earth cool with their shade. At the same time, thin, wide cirrus clouds high in the atmosphere trap heat on Earth's surface, keeping the planet warm. This delicate balance helps to create a comfortable climate, where life flourishes.

Clouds also play a primary role in how life-giving water circulates around our planet. As water on Earth's surface heats, it evaporates into water vapor and rises. As this vapor cools in the atmosphere, the molecules begin to clump together around stray particulates and condense to form clouds. When the clumps become too big, they drop back onto Earth's surface in the form of rain or snow. The never-ending global process of evaporation, precipitation, freezing and melting circulates water around the world -- while also providing the freshwater we need to live. This cycle, which is closely linked to natural exchanges of energy among the atmosphere, ocean and land, helps define our climate.

It's difficult to say what our world would be like if there were no clouds. But, says Stephens, "It's certain that our world without clouds would be nothing like what we know today."

Mars: A World Without Clouds (Mostly)

In fact, it might be much like Mars, says JPL planetary scientist David Kass. The Red Planet today has relatively few clouds compared to Earth. That's because the Martian atmosphere contains less than a tenth of a percent of the amount of water vapor found in Earth's atmosphere. Without much water vapor, and with temperatures averaging 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit) colder than on Earth, only thin ice clouds form. They tend to look like a thinner version of Earth's wispy cirrus clouds.

"We don't think that clouds on Mars get to the point where you couldn't see the sun through them, but they might get thick enough that you could look at the sun through them without hurting your eyes," sats Kass.

Mars also has thicker clouds made of frozen carbon dioxide -- commonly called dry ice --that form both high in the atmosphere and at the poles during winter, where the sun never rises for half the Mars year. These clouds are dense enough to dim the sun's light by about 40 percent (although the polar clouds are never actually illuminated by the sun), but because they are found only in limited regions near the planet's poles and equator, they are unlikely to affect the Martian climate as a whole.

Scientists theorize that the relatively sparse clouds on Mars allow temperatures to rise and fall dramatically. Without the cooling effect of significant cloud shade or the insulating effect of thick cloud blankets, the surface of Mars heats drastically during the day -- reaching temperatures around 18 degrees Celsius (65 degrees Fahrenheit) at the equator -- before the temperature plummets at night -- to equatorial surface temperatures as cold as 130 degrees Celsius below freezing (minus 202 degrees Fahrenheit).

But researchers don't yet know for certain how exactly Martian clouds affect the planet's climate. "It's not clear yet how big a role clouds play in Mars' climate," says Kass. "This is really on the cutting edge right now." As planetary climate models become more sophisticated, they will include the radiative effects of the clouds seen in data from the Mars Climate Sounder on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Kass says the modelers will be able to incorporate that data and examine cases with and without clouds to see their impacts. "We hope to know more soon," Kass adds.

Venus: A Greenhouse Girl Gone Wild

If Mars is what an Earth without many clouds might look like, then Venus shows what our world might look like with far more.

Venus' skies are stuffed with brilliant white clouds that stretch around the entire planet without a single break. As a result, they -- and other molecules in the atmosphere -- reflect more than 80 percent of the sun's light back out into space. For many years, planetary scientists thought this would keep the surface of Venus relatively cool. Yet when the Russian probe Venera 4 landed on the Venusian surface in 1967, it measured a temperature of 482 degrees Celsius (900 degrees Fahrenheit). That's hot enough to melt lead.

"At that point, we realized two things: Venus' atmosphere is very thick -- about 100 times thicker than Earth's -- and greenhouse gases are important to climates," said Kevin Baines, a planetary scientist at JPL and senior research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Venus' thick clouds are surrounded by carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that traps heat on the planet's surface. The little heat from the sun that makes it through the reflective cloud barrier has little chance of escape, and as that heat builds -- if only a little bit at a time -- the surface of Venus gets hotter and hotter.

The heating of Venus' clouds could also cause the planet's extreme air circulation. The excess heat, Baines says, seems to whip the entire atmosphere up to hurricane-force winds, causing the atmosphere at cloud level to circulate 60 times faster than the planet rotates.

"Venus is a planet of extremes," says Baines. "It's very hostile and very hot; you can't survive very long there."

Titan: Partly Cloudy, With a Chance of Methane Rain

There is a middle ground between Mars' relatively clear skies and Venus' cloud-choked heavens. Scattered clouds float above the icy surface and liquid lakes of Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons. These clouds, which are made mostly of methane, punctuate the sky more in the winter than in the summer, just like clouds on Earth. By trapping in the little heat that makes it through Titan's upper level of thicker atmospheric clouds, the scattered clouds warm the surface to a frigid minus 183 degrees Celsius (minus 297 degrees Fahrenheit) on average, keeping the moon's methane lakes and rivers liquid.

NASA's Cassini-Huygens spacecraft studies Titan and its climate, in part to learn more about how cloud cover and other variables affect climate.

CloudSat: Revealing the Inner Secrets of Earth's Clouds

So what have the first four years of CloudSat operations taught us about our mysterious friends in the sky? Stephens says the mission has already yielded a number of important findings.

Among the highlights, the satellite has gathered the first statistics on global vertical cloud structure, including overlapping clouds, to create three-dimensional maps of Earth's cloud cover. It measured the percentage of clouds giving off rain at any given time (13 percent) to better understand how efficiently clouds convert condensed water into rain. It has monitored nighttime storms at Earth's poles from space for the first time. And it has revealed connections between storms at the poles and very high clouds that help create ozone.

"Before CloudSat, we essentially had photos of the tops of clouds from other satellites and photos of the bottoms of clouds from ground-based telescopes," says Deborah Vane, CloudSat deputy principal investigator and JPL project manager for the mission. "CloudSat's advanced radar slices into clouds and looks into their inner structure."

By viewing this complete picture of how clouds operate both inside and out for the first time, and monitoring it on a global scale, CloudSat is offering climatologists the data they need to create better models of Earth's climate -- and help predict what the surface of our planet will probably look like in the future.

So could Earth ultimately turn into a steady inferno like Venus or a fluctuating icebox like Mars? Fortunately, says Stephens, data from CloudSat and other sources show that Earth's clouds are not about to shrink drastically or engulf our skies anytime soon.

"With CloudSat, we're getting information that's critical to understanding how changes to clouds will ultimately take place," said Stephens. "If we can confirm that the assumptions climate models make are right -- or wrong -- then we can have a major influence on their ability to predict the future."

For more informations visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-262

The next spacewalk to complete the removal of a failed ammonia pump module and installation and activation of a new pump module on the International Space Station’s S1 Truss will take place no earlier than Wednesday.

Expedition 24 Flight Engineers Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson completed the first spacewalk to remove and replace the pump module at 3:22 p.m. EDT Saturday. As the result of an ammonia leak in the final line that needed to be disconnected from the failed pump module, the day’s tasks were only partially completed. The decision was made to reconnect the line on the pump module and install a spool positioning device to maintain proper pressure internal to the ammonia line.

Teams on the ground are evaluating the impact of the leak on plans to replace the failed pump, as well as possible fixes for the leak. The completion of the process will most likely require at least two additional spacewalks.

Saturday’s excursion lasted 8 hours, 3 minutes, making it the longest expedition crew spacewalk in history and the sixth longest in human spaceflight history.

Wheelock conducted the fourth spacewalk of his career. Caldwell Dyson made her first spacewalk. Flight Engineer Shannon Walker operated Canadarm2, the station’s robotic arm, and assisted the spacewalkers from inside the station.

After the loss of one of two cooling loops July 31, ground controllers powered down and readjusted numerous systems to provide maximum redundancy aboard the orbiting laboratory. The International Space Station is in a stable configuration, the crew is safe and engineers continue reviewing data from the failed pump.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

New NASA airborne radar images of Southern California near the U.S.-Mexico border show Earth's surface is continuing to deform following the April 4 magnitude, 7.2 temblor and its many aftershocks that have rocked Mexico's state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest.

The data, from NASA's airborne Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), reveal that some faults in the area west of Calexico, Calif., have continued to move at Earth's surface, most likely in the many aftershocks. This fault motion is likely to be what is known as "triggered slip," caused by changes in stress in Earth's crust from the main quake rupture. The new maps, called interferograms, were created by combining data from flights on April 13, 2010, and July 1, 2010.

The first image shows a UAVSAR interferogram swath measuring 87 by 20 kilometers (54 by 12.5 miles) overlaid atop a Google Earth image. Each colored contour, or fringe, of the interferogram represents 11.9 centimeters (4.7 inches) of surface displacement. The different shades in the image represent ground surface motions of up to a few inches upward or downward. Yellow shaded regions moved to the south or downward, regions in blue moved to the north or upward, and regions shaded in magenta showed no motion. Major fault lines are marked in red, and recent aftershocks are denoted by yellow, orange and red dots, with older earthquakes shown as gray dots.

An enlargement of the interferogram is shown in the second image. This image focuses on the area where most of the aftershocks have been located, west of Calexico. The enlargement, which covers an area measuring about 28 by 18 kilometers (18 by 11.5 miles), reveals many small "cuts," or discontinuities, in the interferogram color. These are caused by ground motions on small faults that have occurred since April 13, ranging from less than a centimeter to a few centimeters (half an inch to a few inches). The thin, colored lines represent faults previously mapped by the U.S. and California Geological Surveys through the end of 2009.

A science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is using the JPL-developed UAVSAR to measure surface deformation from the quake. The radar flies at an altitude of 12.5 kilometers (41,000 feet) on a Gulfstream-III aircraft from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

The team uses a technique that detects minute changes in the distance between the aircraft and the ground over repeated, GPS-guided flights.

JPL geophysicist Andrea Donnellan, principal investigator of the UAVSAR project to map and assess seismic hazard in Southern California, said the latest flight provides valuable new data that researchers can use to monitor the continued readjustment of Earth's crust since April's major quake. "The region was reflown with UAVSAR to monitor continued activity, including quiet motions--which are movements of faults that do not result in earthquakes--as Earth's crust readjusts, as well as large aftershocks, such as the magnitude 5.7 quake observed on June 14," she said.

The April 4, 2010, El Mayor-Cucapah quake was centered 52 kilometers (32 miles) south-southeast of Calexico, Calif., in northern Baja California. The quake, the region's largest in nearly 120 years, was also felt in southern California and parts of Nevada and Arizona. There have been thousands of aftershocks, extending from near the northern tip of the Gulf of California to a few miles northwest of the U.S. border. The area northwest of the main rupture, along the trend of California's Elsinore fault, has been especially active.

Geologists used the first UAVSAR interferogram, which included the April 4th quake, to map many new, small fault ruptures in the field. JPL geophysicist Eric Fielding said, "This new interferogram shows that some of the faults have continued to slip since our overflight on April 13th. Such mapping is important for understanding the fault structure in this area between the main fault ruptures on April 4th farther south in Baja California and the faults farther to the north in Southern California, including the Elsinore and San Jacinto faults."

Fielding's studies of interferograms from Japanese and European Space Agency satellites indicate the largest fault movement visible in the new UAVSAR interferogram occurred between May 21 and June 6 along a northeast-southwest trending fault known as the Yuha fault, visible to the right of the center of the interferogram. This fault previously had slipped about 2 to 4 centimeters (1 to 2 inches) in the first days after the April 4th earthquake, as was shown in the earlier UAVSAR and satellite interferograms. Since April 13, the fault has slipped about another 2 centimeters (1 inch).

The fact that the Yuha fault has a trend towards the northeast is also significant, Fielding added, because it is very different from the northwest-trending major Elsinore and San Jacinto fault systems and the faults in Mexico that ruptured in the main earthquake. "This adds to evidence that the faults in Mexico are not directly connected to the Elsinore and San Jacinto faults and may explain why the magnitude 7.2 April 4 earthquake stopped before it reached California," he said.


UAVSAR is part of NASA's ongoing effort to apply space-based technologies, ground-based techniques and complex computer models to advance our understanding of quakes and quake processes. The radar flew over Hispaniola earlier this year to study geologic processes following January's devastating Haiti quake. The data are giving scientists a baseline set of imagery in the event of future quakes. These images can then be combined with post-quake imagery to measure ground deformation, determine how slip on faults is distributed, and learn more about fault zone properties.

UAVSAR is also serving as a flying test bed to evaluate the tools and technologies for future space-based radars, such as those planned for a NASA mission currently in formulation called the Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice, or DESDynI. That mission will study hazards such as earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides, as well as global environmental change.

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-258

In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers prepare External Tank-138, hanging vertically in the transfer aisle, for its lift onto a test cell where it will be checked out before launch. ET-138, the last newly manufactured tank, is designated to fly on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission to the International Space Station. Launch is targeted for Feb. 26, 2011.

For more informations visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1730.html

Looking for a little excitement as the summer draws to a close? This year's Perseid meteor shower peaks on Aug. 12-13, and it promises to be one of the best displays of the year. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a peak display of at least 80 meteors per hours. A waxing crescent moon will set before the shower becomes active, setting a perfect stage for meteor watching -- weather permitting, of course!

More About the Perseids

The Perseids have been observed for at least 2,000 years and are associated with the comet Swift-Tuttle. Each year in August, the Earth passes through a cloud of the comet's debris. These bits of ice and dust -- most over 1,000 years old -- burn up in the Earth's atmosphere to create one of the best meteor showers of the year. The Perseids can be seen all over the sky, but the best viewing opportunities will be across the northern hemisphere. Those with sharp eyes will see that the meteors radiate from the direction of the constellation Perseus.

More About Chat Expert Bill Cooke

The head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, Dr. Bill Cooke specializes in the meteoroid environment and its effects on space vehicles of all sorts. While a graduate student at the University of Florida, he worked on instruments flying onboard balloons, the Space Shuttle, Giotto (European mission to Halley's Comet), and the Long Duration Exposure Facility.

After obtaining his PhD, he came to work at Marshall Space Flight Center as a member of the Space Environments Team. When not occupied with meteor observations and shower forecasts, he dabbles as a free- lance author for magazines and is a mentor for the Team America Rocketry Challenge and NASA's Student Launch Initiative rocketry programs.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/perseids_2010.html

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission.

The principal investigator for one of the instruments, and the management for NASA's roles in the mission, are based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled to launch in 2016, is the first of three joint robotic missions to the Red Planet. It will study the chemical makeup of the Martian atmosphere with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity over previous Mars orbiters. The mission will focus on trace gases, including methane, which could be potentially geochemical or biological in origin and be indicators for the existence of life on Mars. The mission also will serve as an additional communications relay for Mars surface missions beginning in 2018.

"Independently, NASA and ESA have made amazing discoveries up to this point," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Working together, we'll reduce duplication of effort, expand our capabilities and see results neither ever could have achieved alone."

NASA and ESA invited scientists worldwide to propose the spacecraft's instruments. The five selected were from 19 proposals submitted in January. Both agencies evaluated the submissions and chose those with the best science value and lowest risk.

The selection of the instruments begins the first phase of the new NASA-ESA alliance for future ventures to Mars. The instruments and the principal investigators are:

• Mars Atmosphere Trace Molecule Occultation Spectrometer -- A spectrometer designed to detect very low concentrations of the molecular components of the Martian atmosphere: Paul Wennberg, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
• High Resolution Solar Occultation and Nadir Spectrometer -- A spectrometer designed to detect traces of the components of the Martian atmosphere and to map where they are on the surface: Ann C. Vandaele, Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium.
• ExoMars Climate Sounder -- An infrared radiometer that provides daily global data on dust, water vapor and other materials to provide the context for data analysis from the spectrometers: John Schofield, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
• High Resolution Color Stereo Imager -- A camera that provides four-color stereo imaging at a resolution of two million pixels over an 8.5 kilometer (5.3 mile) swath: Alfred McEwen, University of Arizona, Tucson.
• Mars Atmospheric Global Imaging Experiment -- A wide-angle, multi-spectral camera to provide global images of Mars in support of the other instruments: Bruce Cantor, Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego.

The science teams on all the instruments have broad international participation from Europe and the United States, with important hardware contributions from Canada and Switzerland.

"To fully explore Mars, we want to marshal all the talents we can on Earth," said David Southwood, ESA director for Science and Robotic Exploration. "Now NASA and ESA are combining forces for the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission. Mapping methane allows us to investigate further that most important of questions: Is Mars a living planet, and if not, can or will it become so in the future?"

NASA and ESA share a common interest in conducting robotic missions to the Red Planet for scientific purposes and to prepare for possible human visits. After a series of extensive discussions, the science heads of both agencies agreed on a plan of cooperation during a July 2009 meeting in Plymouth, England, later confirmed by ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement of intent that was signed in November 2009.

The plan consists of two Mars cooperative missions in 2016 and 2018, and a later joint sample return mission. The 2016 mission features the European-built ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a European-built small lander demonstrator, a primarily-U.S. international science payload, and NASA-provided launch vehicle and communications components. ESA member states will provide additional instrument support.

The 2018 mission consists of a European rover with a drilling capability, a NASA rover capable of caching selected samples for potential future return to Earth, a NASA landing system, and a NASA launch vehicle. These activities are designed to serve as the foundation of a cooperative program to increase science returns and move the agencies toward a joint Mars sample return mission in the 2020s.

NASA's Mars Exploration Program seeks to characterize and understand Mars as a dynamic system, including its present and past environment, climate cycles, geology and potential for life. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the program and development of the NASA-supplied instruments for the 2016 orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For More information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/exo20100802.html

It was a perfect STORRM. On Tuesday, July 20, NASA and its industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., successfully demonstrated a new sensor technology that will make it easier and safer for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station.

This new docking navigation system prototype consists of an eye-safe lidar Vision Navigation Sensor, or VNS, a high-definition docking camera, developed as well as the avionics and flight software. Both sensors will provide real-time three-dimensional images to the crew with a resolution 16 times higher than the current space shuttle sensors. This next generation system also provides data from as far away as three miles – three times the range of the current shuttle navigation sensor.

"You are looking at the future of rendezvous and docking right here," said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace, as he welcomed dozens of NASA and industry engineers to the demonstration.

The hardware will be tested by astronauts aboard STS-134, the last planned shuttle mission, currently scheduled for February 2011, as part of the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective (DTO). On Flight Day 11 of the mission, the shuttle crew will conduct an unprecedented on-orbit maneuver; they will undock from the space station and then re-rendezvous with the station on an Orion-like approach.

Five retro-reflectors, which will serve as targets for the VNS, were installed on the station's visual docking target during the STS-131 shuttle mission in May.

The demonstration, held at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo. offered the STORRM team the chance to operate the flight hardware for personnel who will be supporting STORRM during the mission -- the astronaut crew, flight director, and mission operations personnel.

Mark Kirasich, deputy Orion Manager from the Orion Project Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston recognized the STORRM team for its perseverance and dedication to develop the DTO flight hardware on an aggressive and success-oriented schedule.

The intense project required NASA engineers and contractors to work holidays, evenings and weekends in order to successfully deliver the DTO flight hardware per the shuttle schedule. Normally, it takes more than two years to develop flight hardware, but the STORRM team was able to deliver the DTO sensor hardware in half that time. Despite the aggressive schedule, the team finished on time.

"It's been challenging -- but we were successful," said Frank Novak, STORRM project manager from NASA's Langley Research Center. "We were successful despite many challenges; my hat's off to the team."

"We have met every milestone along the way, and I could not be more proud of this team," echoed Howard Hu, manager of Orion Vehicle Performance and Analysis, responsible for STORRM from NASA Johnson.

Following the demonstration, the STS-134 crew was briefed on the STORRM hardware and mission objectives. After the hardware demonstration, the STORRM avionics lead Tom Johnson from NASA Langley and the Deputy Principal Investigator Sean Maguire from NASA Johnson, led the crew training activities, which gave crewmember Andrew Feustel and Commander Mark Kelly "hands on" time to gain experience running the software application and the STORRM flight hardware.

"I've been to the space station three times, and this is the first time that I'll be doing something like this," said Kelly, who will serve as commander on STS-134.

On Aug. 3, the STORRM hardware will be shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center where it will be integrated into the shuttle.

"This is a huge step forward for us," said Kirasich. "You saw Pad Abort-1. This is the next big thing."

STORRM was developed by the Orion Project Office at NASA Johnson, which is responsible for program management, technology evaluation, flight test objectives, operational concepts, contract management and data post-processing. Engineers at NASA Langley were responsible for engineering management, design and build of the avionics, STORRM software application and reflective elements. They are also responsible for the integration, testing and certification of these components. Industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace Technologies Corp. were responsible for the design, build and testing of the VNS and docking camera.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/perfect-STORRM.html

Engineers have conducted a fuel tank check of one of NASA's GRAIL mission spacecraft (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), scheduled for launch in 2011. Confirming the size and fit of manufactured components is one of the steps required prior to welding the spacecraft's fuel tanks into the propulsion system's feed lines.

The image was taken on June 29, 2010, during the propulsion subsystem assembly and integration effort in the Space Support Building clean room at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.

The GRAIL mission will fly twin spacecraft (spacecraft "A" and "B") in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. The mission will also answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon, and provide scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

For More information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-249

Long before space shuttle Columbia flew on its STS-1 maiden flight and into the history books, NASA astronauts trained for years before they were ready to fly.

One of the mainstays of training has been the Crew Equipment Interface Test, or CEIT, developed to prepare astronauts for their missions in space while still here on Earth.

CEIT is held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida about two months prior to launch, and gives astronauts the opportunity for hands-on training with the actual tools, equipment and hardware they'll use in orbit.

But there's more to the training than meets the eye. A lot of preparation goes into making sure all the elements are in place before the astronauts arrive -- and after they leave.

Dave Andrews, Engineering Systems Specialist with United Space Alliance's Flight Crew Systems Engineering Group, knows first-hand what it takes to get ready for CEIT. Since STS-41D, in 1984, Andrews has been working CEIT.

"It was a very new program in the '80s," said Andrews, "and it was exciting to meet all the different folks who worked out here including the astronauts, that we had personal contact with."


Some of the hardware for the shuttle is prepared at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and shipped to Kennedy. Andrews' group installs the flight equipment into the crew module for each training session and mission.

Many requirements come from Johnson but back then there were no computers, so instructions were sent and received by fax, while many procedures were hand-written with pen and paper, recalled Andrews.

With the advent of computers and email, planning for CEIT became less cumbersome, but no less exacting. Each flight has its own set of requirements and equipment.

"Over the years there have been a lot of modifications to the shuttle, so every CEIT is unique in that it incorporates the latest changes to the orbiter," Andrews said.

Aside from the modifications to the vehicles, with construction of the International Space Station underway, CEIT training became slightly more generic in that the vehicle configuration was generally similar. Only the payload was different, based on the needs to accomplish the mission.

The STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is an example of the need for a different scope of equipment and hardware. "That mission," said Andrews, "had its own unique set of requirements because it wasn't going to the station and we had to prepare the vehicle in case it had to stay on orbit and wait for a rescue vehicle if there was an issue."

CEIT is a planned event, which means it's programmed around the astronauts' training schedule in Houston and usually falls on a weekend. The advantage is that during that time there's usually no maintenance work being done on the vehicle so crew and staff can have full access to every area of the shuttle.

While the mock-up shuttle trainers in Houston are amazingly accurate, some of the doors that open will have only a piece of plywood behind them according Andrews, so CEIT is very important for the astronauts to get a "real feel" for the vehicle and for what they'll experience while on orbit.

"During CEIT it might be the first time, first-time flyers have seen the shuttle they're going to fly in -- or have even seen the actual shuttle itself," Andrews said.

About a week before CEIT, Andrews' group installs the hardware into the vehicle's crew module and payload bay. Also installed are hundreds of cables providing connections for video, high-definition television and data links. His team then fit checks or tests the hardware on the ground before fight to ensure those parts can be installed on orbit as planned.

"Every mission is unique for our group so it keeps us on our toes. We get a lot of last minute requests to provide hardware for the space station or last-minute requests from the crew for changes they like to see incorporated," said Andrews. "A lot of times we're putting stuff into the orbiter a day before launch and sometimes our job's not done until the closeout crew closes the hatch on launch day."



In-fight maintenance procedures also are followed precisely so in case there's an anomaly during a mission the crew can practice the repair on the ground first. "It's a good training exercise both for the crew and for the in-flight maintenance crew who also come down here for CEIT," said Andrews.

Andrews said that one of the exceptional things about working with his group is that he gets not only to meet the astronauts but occasionally gets to know them on a personal level. "I'm grateful for the relationships that were established with many of the crew members over the years."

The astronauts have even commented on how important CEIT was to their success in space. Commander Eileen Collins said during the STS-114 Return to Flight CEIT training at Kennedy in July 2004, "from cable routing to tool stowage to tile inspection, CEIT makes us better prepared to carry out our mission."

After the astronauts have returned to Houston, Andrews' group checks all the cabling and hardware configurations before fight.

"We try to capture all the unique interfaces here on the ground to make sure everything is going to fit correctly -- if for some reason it doesn't fit here on the ground we repair the hardware or reroute a cable so it goes from point A to point B as it would on orbit," Andrews said. "We try to do everything here on the ground perfect or as close to perfect as we can so there are no issues on orbit for the crew to have to work or have to work around."

Andrews remarked about how proud he and his group are when the astronauts return from a mission and thank them for the exceptional work they've put into the spacecraft making their stay as issue-free as possible.

"For me it's been a great 26 years," Andrews said. "We all knew it had to end sometime, we couldn't fly the shuttle forever. We were told a few years ago that 2010 was about the time we were going to move on to the next program … It's been a great, great ride."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/flyout/ceit.html

Imagine you're at school, munching on a cheeseburger during lunch, just chatting with your friends about how awesome it is that NASA is sending a rover to Mars. Now imagine eating a cheeseburger again, except you're now talking to some of the top-notch scientists and engineers in the world who are actually working on the rover. This is just one of the many opportunities a high school intern can experience at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

So far, my eight-week internship here at JPL has been amazing. I became a summer intern through the INSPIRE program (Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience), a nationwide program across 10 NASA centers. The program gives incoming high school seniors the opportunity to spend the summer working in a professional STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) environment. At my high school, I am involved in the physics team, Science Bowl, Ocean Science Bowl, astronomy club and physics club. Clearly, I love science and I am thinking about majoring in engineering or computer science. I would say the most important prerequisite for a JPL internship is a strong interest in and passion for science, technology, engineering or math.

This summer, I am working with the Mars Public Engagement team. One of my main projects is to create a virtual tour of the possible landing sites of the Curiosity rover that will launch in late 2011. This opportunity is really cool because I get to chat with a Mars scientist and learn about all the landing sites. Several of my other projects involve designing and adding more features to Mars websites using HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator and other software programs. I've also contributed posts about the Curiosity rover for Facebook and Twitter, in addition to writing spotlights about Curiosity that go on NASA's Mars Exploration Program website and on the JPL Mars homepage. It's really cool seeing my work on official NASA/JPL websites! One of the other interns in my program is working hands-on in building an environmental control system for Curiosity, while another is working with databases and algorithms, and another is working with coding and software for robots.

While the INSPIRE program is common to all NASA centers, SpaceSHIP is a high school internship program that is specific to JPL. Students need to live within 50 miles of the lab, but in general, the high school students do similar work. Space Grant is another NASA program that accepts high school students.

What I like a lot about JPL is the work environment. It's professional yet laid back. Workplace doors are decorated with witty science jokes, scientists and engineers laugh and joke in the cafeteria, employees will ask you about your day in the elevator and everyone is invited to listen to lectures by renowned scientists. It kind of reminds me of a college campus, but much better! It's a place where ideas, even those of a high school intern, are heard, and creativity is allowed to bloom. The workplace is not intimidating, and I feel very comfortable here despite being just 17 years old. I am not treated as a high school student but as a contributing member of the team. While some of my friends are filing papers or running errands at other internships, I get to do what I like here at JPL in an experience of a lifetime!

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-248

Talk about a growth-spurt. In one week, Curiosity grew by approximately 1 meter (3.5 feet) when spacecraft technicians and engineers attached the rover's neck and head (called the Remote Sensing Mast) to its body. At around 2 meters (about 7 feet) tall, the next rover to Mars now stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Mounted on Curiosity's mast are two navigation cameras (Navcams), two mast cameras (Mastcam), and the laser-carrying chemistry camera (ChemCam).

While it now has a good head on its shoulders, Curiosity's "eyes" (the Mastcam), have been blindfolded in a protective silvery material. The Mastcam, containing two digital cameras, will soon be unveiled, so engineers can test its picture-taking abilities.

Up next today (July 23), the towering rover will take its first baby steps: a slow roll on the floor of the clean room where it's being built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-245