November 2014 Vol. 1 No. 8 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Kennedy Space Center’s Center Planning Engineering Launch Services History Center Operations MARS & Development & Technology Program KENNEDY SPACE CENTER’S NASA’S SPACEPORT MAGAZINE LAUNCH SCHEDULE CONTENTS Date: Nov. 23 Mission: Expedition 42 Launch to the International Space Station �������������������I am Kennedy Space Center: Nicole Delvesco 3 Description: Launching on Soyuz 41 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 4 �������������������MAVEN continues Mars exploration that started Soyuz 41 will take Terry Virts and 50 years ago by Mariner 4 Samantha Cristoforetti to the International Space Station. 10 ����������������Delta IV heavy travels to launch pad for Orion’s first flight test Date: No Earlier Than December 14 ����������������Construction of headquarters building underway Mission: Fifth SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services Flight with Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) ����������������Time ticking down on historic launch clock 18 Description: Launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. SpaceX CRS-5 will 24 ����������������Innovative automated system that makes loading deliver cargo and crew supplies propellants more efficient soon will be put to test to the station. It also will carry CATS, a laser instrument to 30 ����������������Crews tackle major fires with ‘Bambi Bucket’ measure clouds and the location and distribution of pollution, dust, smoke, and other particulates in 34 ����������������Super cool technology will measure fuel transfer the atmosphere. in zero gravity Date: No Earlier Than Dec. 4 I am a senior system accountant in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. I Mission: Flight Test of NASA’s oversee the Government Travel Credit Card program for Kennedy Space Center. I ����������������Lunar visit encore inspires precision landing 38 New Orion Spacecraft review system data, reconciliations, and reports to ensure accuracy and timeliness Description: NASA’s Orion and to provide agencywide policy and oversight on a variety of travel accounting and spacecraft will launch this year financial reporting matters. atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket Cover: A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers already are on Back Cover: NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman (pictured here) and from Cape Canaveral Air Force The most exciting part of my job is knowing that I contribute to the U.S. space and around Mars, dramatically increasing our knowledge about European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst completed Station’s Space Launch Complex the Red Planet and paving the way for future human explorers. the first of three spacewalks for the Expedition 41 crew aboard program. I have worked for NASA for more than 23 years at two centers, Goddard 37. The Orion Flight Test will Space Flight Center and Kennedy. I love working with people at NASA because each The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover measured the International Space Station on Oct. 7. The spacewalkers evaluate launch and high worked outside the space station’s Quest airlock for 6 hours and radiation on the way to Mars and is sending back radiation speed re-entry systems such employee has a tremendous amount of knowledge in their field of expertise, and we data from the surface. This data will help us plan how to 13 minutes, relocating a failed cooling pump and installing gear all come together to make NASA’s mission successful. It takes all of us performing protect the astronauts who will explore Mars. Future missions that provides backup power to external robotics equipment. as avionics, attitude control, such as the Mars 2020 rover, seeking signs of past life, also Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore of NASA operated the Canadian parachutes and the heat shield. our duties with excellence. It is inspiring to be part of that team! will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts robotic arm and served as the spacewalk coordinator. survive on Mars. Image credit/NASA Photo credit: NASA/ESA/Alexander Gerst I also am co-chair of one of the Employee Resource Groups at Kennedy. The Disability Awareness and Action Working Group (DAAWG) has been a passion of mine for the past 15 years. I am honored to have the opportunity to encourage and inspire other employees to achieve their highest capability. I enjoy helping remove THE Editorial Writers Group Graphics Group Delvesco Nicole barriers for employees with disabilities and enhancing awareness for the workforce. SPACEPORT Managing Editor ........... Chris Hummel Anna Heiney Bob Granath Richard Beard Amy Lombardo I feel privileged to be part of the NASA family! MAGAZINE Editor ............................ Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Kay Grinter Linda Herridge Lynda Brammer Matthew Young TEAM Assistant Editor ............. Linda Herridge Frank Ochoa-Gonzales Steven Siceloff Greg Lee Copy Editor ................... Kay Grinter SPACEPORT Magazine 3 astronaut and associate administrator of the Earth, in order to refract its radio signals through NASA Science Mission Directorate at the the Martian atmosphere. Data indicated that the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “MAVEN atmospheric pressure on the surface was quite will complement NASA’s other Martian robotic low. explorers -- and those of our partners around the The probe detected daytime surface globe -- to answer some fundamental questions temperatures of about minus 148 degrees about Mars and life beyond Earth.” Fahrenheit. A very weak radiation belt, about The exploration of Mars began a half-century 0.1 percent that of the Earth’s, also was ago with the Nov. 28, 1964, launch of Mariner 4, discovered by Mariner 4. MAVEN continues Mars atmosphere and water, presumed to have the first successful mission to the Red Planet. It In addition to unlocking key information about exploration started by once been substantial, were lost over time. was one of the great early successes for NASA, how to safely deliver future missions to the Mariner 4 probe 50 years ago Spacecraft previously visiting Mars returned data returning the first photographs of another planet Martian surface, the spacecraft far outlasted indicating that liquid water once flowed on the from deep space. its planned eight-month mission. Mariner 4 BY BOB GRANATH Mars surface. However, water now cannot exist Approximately 40 minutes prior to closest remained in solar orbit, continuing long-term hen the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile extensively on the Martian surface due to the low approach on July 15, 1965, at a range of 6,118 studies of the solar wind and making coordinated WEvolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft arrived atmospheric pressure and surface temperatures. miles, the television camera began taking the measurements with the Mariner 5 mission to at the Red Planet on Sept. 21, it marked the MAVEN will observe the upper atmosphere, and first of 21 photographs. Venus. Contact finally was lost Dec. 21, 1967. continuation of exploration of one of Earth’s drivers of variability from the Sun, in order to A report by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory- Since Mariner 4, the lure of the Red Planet nearest celestial neighbors that began 50 years estimate the loss of the Martian atmosphere and California Institute of Technology team that remains, with numerous spacecraft being ago. In 1964, the Mariner 4 probe became the water over time. managed the flight stated that the surface was launched to further explore Mars by the United first to successfully fly by Mars, opening the way The primary mission includes five “deep-dip” pockmarked much like the moon. States, the Soviet Union/Russia, Japan, Great for future human exploration. campaigns in which MAVEN’s lowest orbital “There were more than 70 clearly Britain, the European Space Agency, India and MAVEN was launched from Kennedy Space altitude will be from 93 miles to about 77 miles. distinguishable craters ranging in diameter from the People’s Republic of China. MAVEN makes Center atop an Atlas V rocket on Nov. 18, 2013. These measurements will provide information 4 to 120 km (2.5 to 74.5 miles),” the report said. the 16th successful American probe dispatched Following a roughly 10-month trip of more than at the point where the upper and lower “It seems likely that smaller craters exist; there to Mars. 442 million miles, the spacecraft was inserted atmospheres meet, giving scientists a full profile also may be still larger craters, since Mariner 4 On Nov. 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first into an elliptical orbit on Sept. 21. of the upper tier. photographed, in all, about one percent of the spacecraft to be placed in orbit around another MAVEN will study the Martian upper “NASA has a long history of scientific Martian surface.” planet. After enduring months of dust storms, atmosphere while orbiting the planet. Mission discovery at Mars and the safe arrival of MAVEN A little more than an hour after the encounter, Mariner 9 sent back clear pictures of the Martian goals include determining how the Martian opens another chapter,” said John Grunsfeld, Mariner 4 dipped behind Mars, as viewed from surface. 4 SPACEPORT Magazine SPACEPORT Magazine 5 Vikings 1 and 2 were the first spacecraft to water activity on Mars. Von Braun began writing the soft land on Mars and to successfully perform a Mission planners initially hoped the two manuscript in 1947 while working mission returning data and photographs of the rovers would operate for 90 sols. After for the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, in landscape. Viking 1 once held the record for the that time, both Spirit and Opportunity still El Paso, Texas. At the time, he was had plenty of life, and multiple mission helping launch rockets to the edge extensions kept Spirit functioning until of space at the nearby White Sands March 22, 2010. Opportunity continues to Proving Ground in New Mexico. operate, having traveled almost 25 miles In his book, von Braun suggested across the Martian surface. that a mission to Mars would require Launched by NASA to Mars on Nov. 26, a fleet of spacecraft, noting that when 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Christopher Columbus sailed from landed the Curiosity rover on Aug.