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This Week at NASA…

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After a two day trip that began with its launch
from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan,

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an\hunpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship
successfully mated with the International

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Space Station's Pirs Docking Compartment.
The docking occurred as the two spacecraft

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were traveling about 240 miles above the northeast
coast of Brazil. The supply ship delivers

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about\h2.9 tons of food, fuel and equipment
to the six crewmembers onboard the ISS. The

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Progress spacecraft is scheduled to remain
docked to Pirs until late April.

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The biggest storm on the sun in years erupted
on January 22 with a huge solar flare, an

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Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME,
and a burst of fast moving, highly energetic

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protons. According to NOAA’s Space Weather
Prediction Center, these “solar energetic

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particles” caused the strongest solar radiation
storm since September 2005.

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“We’re expecting to reach the solar maximum
in terms of activity, sometime around next

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year. So we’re expecting to have more of
these kinds of solar eruptions in the coming

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two or three years.”
Closely monitored by NASA scientists, the

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storm caused no major disruptions to operating
technological systems in space or on the ground,

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such as satellite communications or high voltage
power transmission.

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The warming of the Earth’s surface continues.
That, according to scientists at NASA's Goddard

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Institute for Space Studies in New York, who
say the average global surface temperature

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in 20-11 was the ninth warmest since 1880.
The finding continues a trend in which nine

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of the ten warmest years in the modern meteorological
record have occurred since 2000. GISS monitors

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global surface temperatures on an ongoing
basis, and has found that the average temperature

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around the globe in 20-11 was 0.92 degrees
Fahrenheit warmer than it was around 19-50.

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“To say that this is a problem that we don’t
need to concern ourselves with until a few

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years from now is a mistake. We need to concern
ourselves with it now so that the outcome

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a few years from now is something that we’re
well positioned to deal with.”

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Former astronaut Scott Altman addressed Mississippi
State legislators during NASA Day at the Capitol

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in Jackson. The event included exhibits highlighting
the Stennis Space Center’s role in the past,

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present and future of America’s space program,
as well as the center’s contributions to

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Mississippi’s economy and quality of life.

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There’s nothing new about satellites in
space. But flying them inside the International

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Space Station? That’s what teams of high
school students from the U.S. and abroad did

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in the Zero Robotics SPHERES Challenge 2011
Finals. Televised live on NASA TV, the event

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featured these bowling ball-sized devices,
called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage,

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Reorient, Experimental Satellites, being flown
on the station using software programs developed

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by the students.

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Operated and maintained by the Ames Research
Center, the SPHERES National Laboratory Facility

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onboard the ISS is exploring whether these
mini-satellites can affordably test spacecraft

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navigation in a microgravity environment.

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The SPHERES competition is a collaboration
of NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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and the Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency, or DARPA.

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About 350 students celebrated the 19th annual
Young Astronaut Day at the Glenn Research

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Center. A variety of activities appealed to
their interest in aeronautics, space science

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and engineering. The younger children enjoyed
challenges like balancing marbles on a plate

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in a vacuum chamber, while the older members
of our next generation of explorers investigated

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the building of robotic vehicles able to travel
across a simulated planetary surface.

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Selected as a NASA astronaut after seven rejections,
Cleveland-area native, Mike Foreman, spoke

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of how persistence can help realize your dreams.

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“If you fail at a goal the first time, the
second time, maybe event the third time, I

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would hope that you guyts would get back up
and keep trying, you know to reach the goal.

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It might be just to make the soccer team.”

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The crowning activity of the day: the use
of some two thousand cans of food to build

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a mini-space shuttle, later donated to a Cleveland
food bank.

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An engaging new NASA program brings the excitement
of space exploration to children while teaching

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them to live a healthy lifestyle. Inspired
by First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move!

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initiative, NASA's Train Like an Astronaut
program aims to increase opportunities for

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kids to become more physically and mentally
active.

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The program uses activities similar to those
astronauts perform before, during and after

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spaceflights to help 8-to-12 year olds develop
good fitness and nutrition habits.

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“But it could also be for us older kids,
because we always need the adults to team

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in and work with our children to improve their
physical fitness as well as help them learn

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about how to live a healthier lifestyle and
good nutrition.”

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The activities in Train Like an Astronaut
align with national education standards and

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were developed in cooperation with NASA scientists
and fitness professionals who work directly

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with our astronauts.
Actress and spaceflight activist Nichelle

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Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura in the original
Star Trek TV series, found many friendly fans

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during a recent warp-speed visit to NASA Dryden
Flight Research Center's facilities in Southern

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California. Nichols related her experiences,
both as a member of the Star Trek cast, and

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as an advocate for human exploration of space,
to an appreciative audience of Dryden employees.

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“That's what our tax dollars are doing…gaining
us the future, gaining us beyond our wildest

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dreams. What humankind can dream of, humankind
can do…and much more.”

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Nichols considers one of her greatest accomplishments
was helping open the door for the first women

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and persons of minority ethnicity to become
NASA astronaut candidates, including Mae Jemison

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and current NASA administrator Charlie Bolden.
She stressed that Americans not only have

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the opportunity, but the duty to ensure that
NASA's space exploration program remains viable,

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as it seeks to go where no man or woman has
gone before.

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“I was always talking to Star Trek fans,
about "Why space?"… why it's important.

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It's our space, but do you understand that
that's not them doing that, that's ours…it

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belongs to us…NASA belongs to me … say
it, everybody – NASA belongs to me!”

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Forty-one years ago, on January 31, 1971,
the Apollo 14 mission began with its launch

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from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and

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Edgar Mitchell manned NASA’s third mission
to land on the moon. Shepard and Mitchell

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spent nearly 33 hours in the Fra Mauro highlands,
the same area to have been explored by the

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aborted Apollo 13 mission. They conducted
two lunar EVAs and collected more material

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and scientific data than Apollo 11 and 12
combined. And famously, Commander Shepard

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swung the first golf club in space, sending
two balls across the lunar frontier.

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“Miles, miles and miles.”
Apollo 14 touched down safely in the Pacific

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Ocean on February 9, 1971.
And that’s This Week @ NASA!

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