Mariner 10

On Nov. 3, 1973, the Mariner Venus/Mercury 1973 spacecraft, also known as Mariner 10, was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, becoming the first spacecraft designed to use gravity assist. Three months after launch it flew by Venus, changed speed and trajectory, then crossed Mercury's orbit in March 1974.

This photo identifies the spacecraft's science instruments, which were used to study the atmospheric, surface and physical characteristics of Venus and Mercury. This was the sixth in the series of Mariner spacecraft that explored the inner planets beginning in 1962.

Getting Ready

The Ares I-X rocket stands tall inside the massive Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Part of the Constellation Program, the Ares I-X is the test vehicle for the Ares I, which is the essential core of a space transportation system that eventually will carry crewed missions back to the moon, on to Mars and out into the solar system.

Atlantis on Track for November Launch

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida technicians are back in Orbiter Processing Facility-1 today performing final checks on space shuttle Atlantis. The vehicle is set to move, or rollover, to the Vehicle Assembly Building tomorrow with first motion scheduled for 7 a.m. EDT.

In the VAB, the external tank and solid rocket boosters, now secured in place, also are undergoing final checks and testing.

After Atlantis is joined with the tank and boosters, the giant crawler-transporter will be rolled under the mobile launcher platform. The entire stack now is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 13.

Meanwhile, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the STS-129 crew members will be reviewing deorbit burn procedures and space station systems manuals, and practicing heat shield repair techniques.

The astronauts are scheduled to fly to Kennedy on Oct. 19 to participate in the three-day Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT. Typically held prior to launch, TCDT gives the crew an opportunity to check the fit of their spacesuits, practice emergency evacuation procedures at the launch pad, review firefighting methods, and participate in briefings on security and range safety.

Preparations for STS-129 Mission in Full Swing
The STS-129 mission will be commanded by Charlie Hobaugh and piloted by Barry Wilmore. Mission Specialists are Robert Satcher, Mike Foreman, Randy Bresnik and Leland Melvin. Wilmore, Satcher and Bresnik will be making their first trips to space.

Atlantis and its crew will deliver parts to the space station, including a spare gyroscope. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Atlantis also will return station crew member Nicole Stott to Earth and is slated to be the final space shuttle crew rotation flight.

Launch of Atlantis on the STS-129 mission is targeted for 4:04 p.m. EST Nov. 12.

Space Radar Reveals Topography of Tsunami Site

Two color-coded perspective views of the Independent State of Samoa (left) and American Samoa (right), generated with digital elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, illustrate the varying topography of the islands. A tsunami generated by a major undersea earthquake on Sept. 29, 2009, inundated the more heavily populated southern coast of Tutuila, the largest of the islands of American Samoa, with an ocean surge more than 3 meters (10 feet) deep, causing scores of casualties. The tsunami also inundated villages on the southern coast of the Independent State of Samoa with an ocean surge perhaps more than 3 meters (10 feet) deep, and also impacted the more heavily populated northern coasts with a surge measured at nearly 1.5 meters (4 feet) at the capital city of Apia.

Digital topographic data such as those produced by SRTM can be used to aid researchers and planners in predicting which coastal regions are at the most risk from such waves, as well as from the more common storm surges caused by tropical storms and even sea level rise.

International Science Teams Selected for Aquarius/SAC-D Mission

NASA and Argentina's Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with support from the Argentine Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovative Production (MinCyT), have selected additional members of the international scientific investigating team for the Aquarius/Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC)-D mission, scheduled to launch in 2010. The new team members include two from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The joint minimum three-year mission will carry a suite of instruments into space onboard the Argentine-built SAC-D spacecraft. NASA's sensor, Aquarius, is the primary instrument on the mission. Aquarius is designed to provide monthly global maps of how salt concentration varies on the ocean surface - a key indicator of ocean circulation and its role in climate change. Seven CONAE-sponsored instruments will provide environmental data for a wide range of applications, including natural hazards, land processes, epidemiological studies and air quality issues.

NASA and CONAE conducted a joint solicitation and selection of scientific investigations and innovative application demonstration projects using Aquarius/SAC-D observations. NASA selected 15 projects that it will fund over the next four years for a total of $8 million. CONAE/MinCyT selected 15 Argentine projects with participation of scientists from Chile and Brazil, which will be funded for a total of $1.3 million. An additional 10 proposals were selected from scientists in Italy and Japan.

The primary focus of the selected projects is to prepare the scientific community to use Aquarius/SAC-D observations to better understand the interactions between global ocean circulation, the water cycle and Earth's climate. Several projects will concentrate on socio-economic applications of the mission's observations in such areas as fishery management, disease and flood forecasting, and monitoring volcanic eruptions and fires.

The principal investigators for the NASA-funded projects are:

- William Asher, University of Washington, Seattle
- Frederick Bingham, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
- Shannon Brown, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
- Antonio Busalacchi, University of Maryland, College Park
- Ichiro Fukumori, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
- Arnold Gordon, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, N.Y.
- Thomas Jackson, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md.
- W. Linwood Jones, University of Central Florida, Orlando
- Roger Lang, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
- William Large, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo.
- Nikolai Maximenko, University of Hawaii, Honolulu
- Rui Ponte, Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Cambridge, Mass.
- Stephen Riser, University of Washington, Seattle
- Douglas Vandemark, University of New Hampshire, Durham
- Frank Wentz, Remote Sensing Systems, Santa Rosa, Calif.

The principal investigators for the CONAE/MinCyT-funded projects are:

- Miguel Bertolami, National University of the Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Chubut, Argentina
- Marcelo Cassini, National University of Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Carlos Cotlier, National University of Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina
- Dora Goniadzki, National Water Institute, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Raúl Guerrero, National Institute for Fisheries Research and Development, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Haydee Karszenbaum, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Maite Narvarte, Marine Biology Institute Alte. Storni, Chubut, Argentina
- Alberto Piola, Naval Hydrographic Service, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Gloria Pujol, National Meteorological Service, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Mirta Raed, National University of Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Raúl Rivas, National University of Centro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cristina Rodriguez, Mariscope Chilena Department of Oceanography, Puerto Montt, Chile
- Hector Salgado, Naval Hydrographic Service, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Paola Salio, National University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cristina Serafini, National University of Luján, Buenos Aires, Argentina

NASA is providing the Aquarius instrument (which was built by JPL), along with launch services and Aquarius science data processing. JPL manages the Aquarius mission for NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is providing the Aquarius instrument radiometer. CONAE is providing the SAC-D spacecraft; additional instruments, including optical and thermal cameras, a microwave radiometer and other specific sensors (with participation from Italy, France, Canada and various Argentine institutions); and mission operations.

Launch of Aquarius/SAC-D onboard a Delta II rocket is scheduled for no earlier than May 2010 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Earthquake off Samoa Generates Tsunami

On the morning of September 29, 2009, a large undersea earthquake near Samoa generated a destructive tsunami that killed more than 100 people, said news reports. According to measurements from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the magnitude 8.0 quake hit at 6:48 a.m. about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of Apia, the capital of Samoa. The tsunami struck the islands of Savi’i, Upola, and Tutuila minutes later with waves that were 3.1 meters (10 feet) high near Pago Pago (American Samoa) and 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) in Apia, said the USGS. Smaller tsunamis hit other Pacific islands farther away from the quake’s epicenter.

This image shows the location of the earthquake in relation to the islands. The earthquake epicenter, shown by a large black circle, was located on the Pacific tectonic plate near its boundary with the Australian plate (southwest corner of map). Dozens of magnitude 4 and 5 aftershocks, shown by open circles, followed the initial earthquake, continuing until at least September 30th. The knee-shaped area of deep water is the Tonga Trench, a deep canyon on the edge of the Pacific plate. The trench and associated faults are forming as the Pacific Plate moves westward, sinking beneath a complex series of smaller plates on the edge of the Australian plate, the shallower area in the lower left corner of the image. The region around the Tonga Trench is one of the most active earthquake regions in the world, said the USGS.

Surveyor 1

Surveyor 1 was the first in a series of seven U.S. missions to the moon that preceded Apollo; five of the seven missions were successful. Surveyor 1 was launched on May 30, 1966, and landed on June 2, 1966. The mission's objectives were to soft land on the moon and to collect information on the lunar regolith. This first Surveyor spacecraft carried only a television camera system (later missions carried additional instruments). The spacecraft landed on a relatively smooth mare surface in Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of Storms). The Surveyor 1 landing site is also one of the areas identified by Project Constellation as a high-priority target for future human lunar exploration.

The scene shows the spacecraft (annotated with an arrow) just south of a subdued 40 m diameter crater and about 110 m northwest of a 190 m diameter crater lined with boulders. The landing site is in the northeast corner of the Flamsteed Ring, a 100 km diameter impact crater almost completely buried by mare lavas such that all that remains exposed is the upper part of the original crater rim.

Surveyor 1 collected over 11,000 images, most during the first lunar day between landing and July 7, 1966. The spacecraft continued to operate until January 7, 1967. The Surveyor images demonstrated that the lunar surface was strong enough to support a landed vehicle or a human. The detailed images also indicated that the surface was composed of a granular material interpreted to be produced by the impact of various size meteors over billions of years.

Expedition 21 Crew Arrives at the International Space Station

Flight Engineers Jeff Williams and Maxim Suraev along with spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté have arrived at the International Space Station. They docked their Soyuz TMA-16 to the aft end of the Zvezda service module at 4:35 a.m. EDT Friday. They launched Wednesday at 3:14 a.m. from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

The newest station crew members will greet the current residents when they open the hatches as early as 7:25 a.m.

Williams and Suraev are relieving Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt who will depart in several days with their Canadian visitor, Laliberté. The three crew members will enter the Soyuz TMA-14 and undock from the Pirs docking compartment at 9:05 p.m. EDT on Oct. 10. They will land in Kazakhstan about three and a half hours later.

Their departure signifies the end of Expedition 20 and the start of Expedition 21. European astronaut Frank De Winne will have completed his duties as Expedition 20 Flight Engineer and assumed command of the International Space Station. De Winne, of the European Space Agency, arrived at the station May 29, 2009. He is scheduled to return to Earth on Dec. 1, 2009 in the same vehicle in which he arrived, the Soyuz TMA-15, which is attached to Zarya’s Earth-facing port. De Winne’s departure in December will leave Jeff Williams in charge of the station as Expedition 22 commander.

Also continuing their stays aboard the station and transitioning to Expedition 21 are Flight Engineers Nicole Stott, Roman Romanenko and Robert Thirsk. Thirsk and Romanenko will continue their long-duration stay until they depart with De Winne. Stott who arrived Aug. 30 aboard space shuttle Discovery will return home in November aboard space shuttle Atlantis.

Atlantis is scheduled to be the last space shuttle to transport a station crew member when it leaves the International Space Station with Nicole Stott on the STS-129 mission. The Russian Soyuz spacecraft will continue crew transportation to and from the orbiting laboratory.

Williams, Padalka and De Winne are all space station veterans. For Williams, Expedition 21 is his third stay aboard the station. His first visit was during shuttle mission STS-101 in May 200 and then he served as a flight engineer during Expedition 13 in 2006. Expedition 21 is De Winne’s second station mission. He visited the station as part of a Soyuz taxi mission in late 2002. In addition to commanding Expeditions 19 and 20, Padalka was the Expedition 9 commander in 2004.

Rima Ariadaeus, a Linear Rille

Rima Ariadaeus is one of several linear rille systems nestled in the highlands between Mare Vaporum and Mare Tranquillitatis. Some rilles, such as Vallis Schroteri, were formed by volcanic eruptions. Other rilles, such as Rima Ariadaeus, are believed to be faults that formed as a result of tectonic activity. Some scientists believe that the linear rilles might have formed after large impact events, while others believe that the rilles were formed as a surface manifestation of deep-seated dike systems when the moon was still volcanically active.

Experts agree that Rima Ariadaeus, about 300 km (186.4 mi) long, is a fault system similar to those on Earth. A large portion of Rima Ariadaeus is visible in this subset of an LROC frame (below), and the LROC NAC image (above) shows part of the rille fault scarp. A mare surface is visible in the southwest corner of the image, and a defined contact between the rille wall and the rille floor is visible in the northeast corner of the image. Rima Ariadaeus is 5 km (3.1 mi) wide and disrupts the preexisting geologic features.

The stratigraphic relationships between the rille and other surface features can help determine whether the rille is older or younger than these features with respect to relative age. For example, the rille cross-cuts a ridge in the middle-left of the WAC frame (near the arrow in the WAC image below); this relationship suggests that the rille is younger than the ridge, because the rille changed the shape of the ridge. However, in the LROC NAC image, there are small craters present on the rille floor, which suggests that the rille is older than these superposing craters. These types of observations are used to examine stratigraphic relationships and the relative ages of landforms in this region so that scientists can reconstruct the moon's geologic history.

Water Detected at High Latitudes on the Moon

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, an instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 mission, took this image of Earth's moon. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth.

Small amounts of water were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles.

Blue shows the signature of water, green shows the brightness of the surface as measured by reflected infrared radiation from the sun and red shows an iron-bearing mineral called pyroxene.

Astro Mike Rockets to a Million on Twitter

In tweet-speak, it might have been called a “twace,” the great space race on Twitter.

Astronaut Mike Massimino became the first human to tweet from space on his final trip to repair the Hubble telescope. It was no contest, however, that he recently also became the first astronaut to reach one million followers on Twitter.

And who says, “In space, no one can hear you tweet?”

On April 1, 2009, it was no fool’s joke that an astronaut joined the Twitter verse. Massimino launched his Twitter to share his space training experience in chirps of no more than 140 characters in length at any given time.

In about two weeks, more than 70 thousand followers were listening. Soon after his launch aboard the space shuttle, he reached 200,000 followers.

Massimino’s mass following nearly doubled after he sent his first tweet from space sharing visual tidbits on his encounters from orbit few humans have ever seen.

But through his eyes, now more than a million people on Earth are getting a glimpse of what living and working in space is like. Massimino tweeted not only on carrying out specific mission activities like shaking lose a bolt during a spacewalk but also on wishing on shooting stars that streaked across India below him, seeing 16 sunrises in 24 hours and eating floating chocolates.

As Massimino approached the one million mark last week, he tweeted, “getting close to a million,” and in less than an hour, he surpassed the mark by a few thousand. According to various twitter statistics, Massimino’s Twitter is ranked 139th by number of followers across all users and is ranked first in Houston, home of NASA’s astronauts.

“I cannot believe we got to one million followers,” said Massimino. “I am thrilled that so many people have been following and responding with such wonderful comments.”

While Twitter and the overall medium that is known as social media is sprawling, there’s a purpose and deeper meaning of having one million followers.

“I tweet because I feel very lucky to have, what in my opinion, is the best job in the world,” Massimino said.

And his followers agree.

“I have learned that there are so many people around the world who really love the space program and have a heartfelt interest in space travel – just like me.”

Some followers add they follow because they seek current space information, more understanding on space exploration and a unique perspective direct from the source that is found no place else on this world.

One follower even admitted enjoying Astro Mike’s “weekend tweets” like the one when he dropped a bag of groceries, forgetting that it won’t float, on adjusting to gravity soon after his return to Earth.

Micro-blogging from microgravity is trending among astronauts as popular topics are on Twitter.

About a dozen astronaut colleagues have joined Massimino and his million plus followers where the bird is the word and are answering the question: “what are you doing?” They offer varied perspectives of both training on Earth and flying in space. Among the NASA astronauts now active on twitter:

• Space Station Expedition 21 Flight Engineer and future Station Commander Jeff Williams, who launched aboard a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan this week, has detailed his training and will provide updates on his flight via twitter, including video and still imagery (@Astro_Jeff).
• Aboard the space station, Expedition 21 Flight Engineer Nicole Stott, who traveled to the complex aboard mission STS-128 in September, is providing insights of her time in space (@Astro_Nicole).
• Astronauts and twins Mark Kelly and Scott Kelly, slated to respectively command the space shuttle and the International Space Station next year, are sharing their unique perspectives with the twitter community -- and with each other -- as they train at locations around the world (Mark Kelly is ; @shuttlecdrkelly; Scott Kelly is @stationcdrkelly).
• Astronaut Jose Hernandez, who just completed his first space flight on shuttle mission STS-128, last month provides NASA's first bilingual twitter in English and Spanish. Hernandez has provided insights on his training and his work inflight, and he is now posting details of his post-mission activities (@Astro_Jose).

More astronauts flying in space and training on Earth are expected to debut on twitter in the near future. All NASA astronauts active on twitter can be followed at @NASA_Astronauts: http://www.twitter.com/nasa_astronauts

New Space Station Crew Launches; In-Orbit News Conference Set

The next residents of the International Space Station launched into orbit aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, Russian cosmonaut Max Suraev and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte lifted off at 2:14 a.m. CDT.

Future Expedition 22 Commander Williams, Soyuz Commander Suraev and Laliberte are scheduled to dock with the station at 3:37 a.m., Friday, Oct. 2. They will spend nine days as members of a joint crew that includes Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, NASA's Mike Barratt and Nicole Stott, the European Space Agency's Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and the Canadian Space Agency's Bob Thirsk.

The nine spacefarers will answer questions from reporters during a news conference from the complex at 9:10 a.m. Oct. 6. The 30-minute news conference will be divided for U.S. journalists at NASA centers, Canadian media representatives at the Canadian Space Agency's headquarters in Quebec and European reporters.

On Oct. 10, Padalka will transfer command of the station to De Winne, who will become commander of the next station mission, designated Expedition 21. Padalka, Barratt and Laliberte will land in Kazakhstan at about 11:29 p.m. Padalka and Barratt have been aboard the orbiting laboratory since March 2009.

Laliberte, a Canadian citizen and the founder of Cirque du Soleil, is flying to the station under an agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and Space Adventures, Ltd. He will spend nine days aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Heavy Rains in Philippines

On September 26, 2009, in a matter of hours, Tropical Storm Ketsana dropped a month’s worth of rain on the Philippine capital of Manila. Streets resembled rivers, covered by water that was chest high and still rising, according to news reports. Over the next few days, death tolls climbed from dozens to over 200, with more casualties expected and search and rescue efforts continued. As of September 28, more than 100,000 people had taken refuge in evacuation centers, and more than 330,000 were believed to be affected.

The estimates, acquired by multiple satellites, are calibrated with rainfall measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite in the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis. The highest rainfall amounts—more than 600 millimeters (23.6 inches)—appear in blue. The lightest amounts appear in pale green. Gray shading indicates island topography of the Philippines.

Rainfall occurs over the entire region shown in this image. The heaviest pocket of rain appears off the west coast of southern Luzon, over the South China Sea. A large expanse of heavy rain stretches from that locality across southern Luzon. An area of heavy rain also occurs immediately south of the capital city.

The flooding that struck the region in late September 2009 was the worst in more than 40 years. Officials declared a “state of calamity” in Manila and 25 provinces affected by the storm.

Ash and Steam Plume from Chaitén

After a spectacular explosion in May of 2008, Chile’s Chaitén volcano has erupted continuously for the past 16 months. The arrival of spring in the Southern Hemisphere allowed this clear view of the ongoing eruption, which had been hidden by clouds for much of the winter. Chaitén is currently in a dome building phase. Thick lava is erupting in Chaitén’s caldera, slowly building a steep-sided dome. Eruptions of ash and steam occur when portions of the dome collapse. The town of Chaitén (located south of the volcano) remains evacuated due to the threat of flows of volcanic debris from the unstable dome.

The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the NASA/USGS Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this natural color image of Chaitén on September 27, 2009, at roughly 10:30 am local time. The U.S. Air Force Weather Agency reported an ash plume extending 56 km (35 miles) northwest of the summit at the time the image was taken.

Cosmic Rays Hit Space Age High

Planning a trip to Mars? Take plenty of shielding. According to sensors on NASA's ACE (Advanced Composition Explorer) spacecraft, galactic cosmic rays have just hit a Space Age high.

"In 2009, cosmic ray intensities have increased 19% beyond anything we've seen in the past 50 years," says Richard Mewaldt of Caltech. "The increase is significant, and it could mean we need to re-think how much radiation shielding astronauts take with them on deep-space missions."

The cause of the surge is solar minimum, a deep lull in solar activity that began around 2007 and continues today. Researchers have long known that cosmic rays go up when solar activity goes down. Right now solar activity is as weak as it has been in modern times, setting the stage for what Mewaldt calls "a perfect storm of cosmic rays."

"We're experiencing the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century," says Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center, "so it is no surprise that cosmic rays are at record levels for the Space Age."

Galactic cosmic rays come from outside the solar system. They are subatomic particles--mainly protons but also some heavy nuclei--accelerated to almost light speed by distant supernova explosions. Cosmic rays cause "air showers" of secondary particles when they hit Earth's atmosphere; they pose a health hazard to astronauts; and a single cosmic ray can disable a satellite if it hits an unlucky integrated circuit.

The sun's magnetic field is our first line of defense against these highly-charged, energetic particles. The entire solar system from Mercury to Pluto and beyond is surrounded by a bubble of solar magnetism called "the heliosphere." It springs from the sun's inner magnetic dynamo and is inflated to gargantuan proportions by the solar wind. When a cosmic ray tries to enter the solar system, it must fight through the heliosphere's outer layers; and if it makes it inside, there is a thicket of magnetic fields waiting to scatter and deflect the intruder.

"At times of low solar activity, this natural shielding is weakened, and more cosmic rays are able to reach the inner solar system," explains Pesnell.

Mewaldt lists three aspects of the current solar minimum that are combining to create the perfect storm:

1. The sun's magnetic field is weak. "There has been a sharp decline in the sun's interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) down to only 4 nanoTesla (nT) from typical values of 6 to 8 nT," he says. "This record-low IMF undoubtedly contributes to the record-high cosmic ray fluxes."
2. The solar wind is flagging. "Measurements by the Ulysses spacecraft show that solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low," he continues, "so the magnetic bubble that protects the solar system is not being inflated as much as usual." A smaller bubble gives cosmic rays a shorter-shot into the solar system. Once a cosmic ray enters the solar system, it must "swim upstream" against the solar wind. Solar wind speeds have dropped to very low levels in 2008 and 2009, making it easier than usual for a cosmic ray to proceed.
3. The current sheet is flattening. Imagine the sun wearing a ballerina's skirt as wide as the entire solar system with an electrical current flowing along the wavy folds. That is the "heliospheric current sheet," a vast transition zone where the polarity of the sun's magnetic field changes from plus (north) to minus (south). The current sheet is important because cosmic rays tend to be guided by its folds. Lately, the current sheet has been flattening itself out, allowing cosmic rays more direct access to the inner solar system.

"If the flattening continues as it has in previous solar minima, we could see cosmic ray fluxes jump all the way to 30% above previous Space Age highs," predicts Mewaldt.

Earth is in no great peril from the extra cosmic rays. The planet's atmosphere and magnetic field combine to form a formidable shield against space radiation, protecting humans on the surface. Indeed, we've weathered storms much worse than this. Hundreds of years ago, cosmic ray fluxes were at least 200% higher than they are now. Researchers know this because when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere, they produce an isotope of beryllium, 10Be, which is preserved in polar ice. By examining ice cores, it is possible to estimate cosmic ray fluxes more than a thousand years into the past. Even with the recent surge, cosmic rays today are much weaker than they have been at times in the past millennium.

"The space era has so far experienced a time of relatively low cosmic ray activity," says Mewaldt. "We may now be returning to levels typical of past centuries."

Expedition 21 Crew Launches From Kazakhstan

Flight Engineers Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev of the 21st International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. EDT Wednesday to begin a six-month stay in space.

Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit, and its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterward.

With Williams, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Suraev, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté, flying under an agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and Space Adventures, Ltd.

Laliberté will depart the station with Expedition 20 crew members Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt in their Soyuz TMA-14 on Oct. 10. Padalka and Barratt launched to the station on March 26.

The Expedition 21 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 20 crew, including Flight Engineers Nicole Stott, Roman Romanenko, Robert Thirsk and Frank De Winne, who will transition to the Expedition 21 crew with the departure of Padalka and Barratt. With the inauguration of Expedition 21, De Winne of the European Space Agency will become the first European commander of the orbiting complex.

Williams, 51, is making his third trip to the space station. His first flight was aboard space shuttle Atlantis on the STS-101 mission, which delivered and installed over 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies to the station in May 2000. In 2006, Williams served a six-month tour of duty aboard the station as an Expedition 13 flight engineer and science officer. Williams has logged over 193 days in space, including over 19 hours in three spacewalks.

Suraev, 37, is making his first flight into space. He is a graduate of the Kachin Air Force Pilot School and the Zhukovski Air Force Academy and received a law degree from the Russian Academy of Civil Service. Qualified as a test-cosmonaut in November 1999, Suraev served as a backup crew member for Expeditions 17 and 19.

NASA Publishes Report about International Space Station Science

Advances in the fight against food poisoning, new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells, and better materials for future spacecraft are among the results published in a NASA report detailing scientific research accomplishments made aboard the International Space Station during its first eight years.

The report includes more than 100 science experiments ranging from bone studies to materials research.

NASA's LCROSS Mission Changes Impact Crater

NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission (LCROSS) based on new analysis of available lunar data, has shifted the target crater from Cabeus A to Cabeus (proper).

The decision was based on continued evaluation of all available data and consultation/input from members of the LCROSS Science Team and the scientific community, including impact experts, ground and space based observers, and observations from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Prospector (LP), Chandrayaan-1 and JAXA's Kaguya spacecraft. This decision was prompted by the current best understanding of hydrogen concentrations in the Cabeus region, including cross-correlation between the latest LRO results and LP data sets.

The general consensus of lunar experts led by the LCROSS science team is that Cabeus shows, with the greatest level of certainty, the highest hydrogen concentrations at the south pole. Further consideration of the most current terrain models provided by JAXA's Kaguya spacecraft and the LRO Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) was important in the decision process.The models show a small valley in an otherwise tall Cabeus perimeter ridge, which will allow for sunlight to illuminate the ejecta cloud on Oct. 9, and much sooner than previously estimated for Cabeus. While the ejecta does have to fly to higher elevations to be observed by Earth assets, a shadow cast by a large hill along the Cabeus ridge, provides an excellent, high-contrast, back drop for ejecta and vapor measurements.

The LCROSS team concluded that Cabeus provided the best chance for meeting its mission goals. The team critically assessed and successfully advocated for the change with the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program (LPRP) office. The change in impact crater was factored into LCROSS' most recent Trajectory Correction Maneuver, TCM7.

During the last days of the mission, the LCROSS team will continue to refine the exact point of impact within Cabeus crater to avoid rough spots, and to maximize solar illumination of the debris plume and Earth observations.

Light-Duty Day for Crew, Expedition 21 Prepares for Launch

The Expedition 20 crew members had a light-duty work day and performed a variety of maintenance and science-related tasks Monday as they prepare for a busy week aboard the International Space Station.

Flight Engineer Frank De Winne installed cables to prepare for the set up of the new Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) that arrived aboard space shuttle Discovery during STS-128.

The crew members unpacked many of the COLBERT treadmill’s components and started the lengthy assembly process. They will be occupied with the assembly and outfitting of the treadmill in the Harmony node throughout the week.

The Canadian-built Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (DEXTRE) had its first significant workout today. It will be commanded to perform various manipulative tasks over the next three days in advance of maintenance work on a remote power control module component scheduled for next year.

Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt reviewed Soyuz descent procedures as they move into the final two weeks of their half year aboard the station. They are scheduled to leave in the Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft the night of Oct. 10 and land in Kazakhstan early the next day.

Meanwhile, the Expedition 21 crew, Flight Engineers Maxim Suraev and Jeffrey Williams, and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte prepared for Wednesday’s 3:14 a.m. EDT launch to the station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are scheduled to arrive and dock to the station on Friday.

The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft was transported from its assembly building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday to the Site 254 launch pad and rotated from its horizontal position on its railcar to its vertical position on the pad.

The ISS Progress 34 cargo craft, filled with trash, was deorbited Sunday at 5:33 a.m. and burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific. It undocked automatically from the station last week.

In-Line Water Filtration: Better Hygeine, Less Expense

Water, essential to sustaining life on Earth, is that much more highly prized in the unforgiving realm of space travel and habitation. Given a launch cost of $10,000 per pound for space shuttle cargo, however, each gallon of water at 8.33 pounds quickly makes Chanel No. 5 a bargain at $25,000 per gallon. Likewise, ample water reserves for drinking, food preparation, and bathing would take up an inordinate amount of storage space and infrastructure, which is always at a premium on a vessel or station.

Water rationing and recycling are an essential part of daily life and operations on the space shuttles and International Space Station. In orbit, where Earth's natural life support system is missing, the International Space Station has to provide abundant power, clean water, and breathable air at the right temperature and humidity for the duration of human habitation and with virtually no waste. The Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS), under continuing development at the Marshall Space Flight Center, helps astronauts use and reuse their precious supplies of water. Future work will explore air management, thermal control, and fire suppression -- in short, all of the things that will make human habitation in space comfortable and safe.

The ECLSS Water Recycling System (WRS) reclaims wastewaters from humans and lab animals in the form of breath condensate, urine, hygiene and washing, and other wastewater streams. On Earth, biological wastewater is physically filtered by granular soil and purified as microbes in the soil break down urea, converting it to a form that plants can absorb and use to build new tissue. Wastewater also evaporates and returns as fresh rain water -- a natural form of distillation. WRS water purification machines on the ISS mimic these processes, though without microbes or the scale of these processes.

A NASA industry partner, Umpqua Research Company, of Myrtle Creek, Oregon, supplier of the bacterial filters used in the life support backpacks worn by space-walking astronauts, helped develop air and water purification technologies for human missions in space. To prevent back-contamination of a drinking water supply by microorganisms, Umpqua developed the microbial check valve, consisting of a flow-through cartridge containing iodinated ion exchange resin. In addition to the microbial contact kill, the resin was found to impart a biocidal residual elemental iodine concentration to the water.

Umpqua's valve and resin system was adopted by NASA as the preferred means of disinfecting drinking water aboard U.S. spacecraft, and canisters are now used on space shuttle missions, the ISS, and for ground-based testing of closed life support technology. Iodine was selected by NASA as the disinfectant of choice because of its lower vapor pressure and reduced propensity for formation of disinfection byproducts compared to chlorine or bromine.

MRLB International Inc., of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, used Umpqua's water purification technology in the design of the DentaPure waterline purification cartridge (Spinoff 1998). It was designed to clean and decontaminate water as a link between filter and high-speed dental tools and other instruments, and offers easy installation on all modern dental unit waterlines with weekly replacement cycles. The product, like its NASA forebear, furnished disinfected water and maintained water purity even with "suckback," an effect caused by imperfect anti-retraction valves in dental instruments, which draws blood, saliva, and other materials from a patient's mouth into the waterline.

Various models of DentaPure now address a variety of needs, and are used in dental offices and schools across the country. The technology offers remarkable filtration: registered to provide 200 CFU/ml purity (Colony Forming Unit/milliliter, a standard measure of microbial concentration) -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standard is 500 CFU, and untreated lines can harbor in excess of 1,000,000 CFU/ml.

Better filtration, greater capacity, and longer service intervals have also led to great savings -- the University of Maryland Dental School estimates it saves $274,000 per year courtesy of DentaPure. The DentaPure system has proven so effective that 40 percent of dental schools nationwide employ it.

The investment in water filtration for space missions continues to pay huge dividends to users and society, year after year, in technologies so woven into our lives that we use them without even thinking about them.

Floundering El Niños Make for Fickle Forecasts

Since May 2009, the tropical Pacific Ocean has switched from a cool pattern of ocean circulation known as La Niña to her warmer sibling, El Niño. This cyclical warming of the ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific generally occurs every three to seven years, and is linked with changes in the strength of the trade winds. El Niño can affect weather worldwide, including the Atlantic hurricane season, Asian monsoon season and northern hemisphere winter storm season. But while scientists agree that El Niño is back, there's less consensus about its future strength.

One of the characteristics that signal a developing El Niño is a change in average sea surface height compared to normal sea level. The NASA/French Space Agency Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites continuously observe these changes in average sea surface height, producing near-global maps of the ocean's surface topography every 10 days.

Recent data on sea-level height from the Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites, displayed at http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/ , show that most of the equatorial Pacific is near normal (depicted in the images as green). The exceptions are the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which are exhibiting areas of higher-than-normal sea surface heights (warmer-than-normal sea-surface temperatures) at 180 and 110 degrees west longitude.

The latest image from Jason-2, which can be seen at http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/2009/images/20090917P.jpg, reflects a 10-day data cycle centered around September 17, 2009. It shows a series of warm "bumps" visible along the equator, denoted in the image by a black line. Known as Kelvin waves, these pools of warm water were triggered when the normally westward-blowing trade winds weakened in late July and again in early September, sending them sliding eastward from the western Pacific toward the Americas. The Kelvin waves are 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) high, a few hundred kilometers wide and a few degrees warmer than surrounding waters. Traveling east at about 3 meters per second (6 miles per hour), they are expected to reach the coast of Peru in October.

Yet the present condition of this year's El Niño is dwarfed in comparison with the "macho" El Niño of 1997-1998, which brought devastating floods to California and severe drought to Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines. As seen in this September 20, 1997, image from the NASA/French Space Agency Topex/Poseidon satellite (see http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/browse/entp2090.gif ), the size and intensity of the 1997-1998 event were much greater by this time of year. That leads some scientists, such as Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to express uncertainty as to whether this El Niño event will intensify enough to deliver the dramatic impacts seen during that last intense El Niño in 1997-1998.

"For the past few months, the trade winds have weakened somewhat, but whether the new Kelvin waves traveling eastward across the Pacific will be adequate to pump this El Niño up enough to reinvigorate it and deliver any real impacts remains uncertain," Patzert says.

Patzert notes that it is important to remember that not all El Niños are created equal. "Some El Niños are show stoppers, but most are mild to modest, with minimal to mixed impacts," he says. He notes that since 1998, there have been three mild to moderate El Niño's: in 2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007.

None of these events delivered the heart-thumping impacts of the monster El Niño of 1997-1998. During the winter of 1997-1998, Southern California was soaked with nearly 79 centimeters (more than 31 inches) of rain (twice Los Angeles' normal annual rainfall amount of about 38.5 centimeters, or 15.14 inches). In addition, there was heavy snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. In comparison, during the past four winters, Los Angeles has averaged only 24.6 centimeters (9.7 inches) of rain (64 percent of normal), and snowpacks have been stingy.

In fact, Patzert notes that this El Niño bears many similarities to the 2006-2007 El Niño event. During that winter, much of the American Southwest experienced record-breaking drought, and Los Angeles had its driest winter in recorded history.

So what will El Niño 2009-2010 hold in store for the world this coming winter? In spite of the uncertainties, experienced climate forecasters around the world will continue to monitor the Pacific closely for further signs of El Niño development and will give it their best shot.

"Unless present El Niño conditions intensify, I believe this El Niño is too weak to have a major influence on many weather patterns," he says. "A macho El Niño like that of 1997-1998 is off the board, but I'm hoping for a relaxation in the tropical trade winds and a surprise strengthening of El Niño that could result in a shift in winter storm patterns over the United States. If the trade winds decrease, the ocean waters will continue to warm and spread eastward, strengthening the El Niño. That scenario could bring atmospheric patterns that will deliver much-needed rainfall to the southwestern United States this winter. If not, the dice seem to be loaded for below-normal snowpacks and another drier-than-normal winter."

Still, Patzert remains hopeful. "Don't give up on this El Niño," he added. "He might make a late break and put his spin on this fall and winter's weather systems."

To learn more about Jason-1 and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, visit: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov .