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This Week at NASA…

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden joined other
agency officials and dignitaries at the Washington

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National Cathedral to honor the life and career
of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man

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to walk on the moon, who died Aug. 25.

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The memorial was broadcast live on NASA Television
and streamed on nasa.gov and the National

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Cathedral's website.

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The historic landmark is considered the spiritual
home for the nation and brings Americans together

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at important moments to pray, commemorate,
celebrate, and mourn.

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“Neil Armstrong left more than footprints
and a flag on the moon.

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In fact, as President Obama said in a letter,
‘future generations will draw inspiration

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from his spirit of discovery, humble composure
and pioneering leadership in setting a bold,

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new course for space exploration.

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The imprint he left on the surface of the
moon and the story of human history is matched

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only by the extraordinary mark he left on
the hearts of all Americans.”

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“Fate looked down kindly on us when she
chose Neil to be the first to venture to another

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world and to have the opportunity to look
back from space at the beauty of our own.

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It could have been another but it wasn’t.

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It wasn’t for a reason.

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No one, no one, but no one could have accepted
the responsibility of his remarkable accomplishment

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with more dignity and more grace than Neil
Armstrong.”

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The memorial was befitting the man whose prowess
as an X-15 test pilot, whose “one giant

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leap for mankind” ushered in a new era of
exploration and whose contributions in academia

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and business in the private sector also enabled
and inspired others to achieve.

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Neil Armstrong was 82.

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One feature of the National Cathedral will
long remain an iconic reminder of the Apollo

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11 mission commanded by Armstrong, his fellow
crew members, and their service to the nation

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and the world in the cause of exploration.

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“The window is one of the centerpieces of
this Cathedral.

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It’s one of the most popular things people
want to see.”

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“The center of it is the moon rock that
was presented to the Cathedral in 19-74 by

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Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins.

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Michael Collins is a graduate of one of the
Cathedral schools, St. Alban’s School for

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Boys.”

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“A gift…of a former NASA Administrator,
Thomas Paine.

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“The window is very, very stark and very
beautiful.”

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“One of the larger presentations that we
have in this place.

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And, it’s very, very impressive in its whole
look in here, and people do seek it out.”

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“One of the things that impresses me about
it is, is that there is a deep connection

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between the spiritual enterprise and the exploration
of space.

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Both of them are about exploring: exploring
the darkness that surrounds us as a planet,

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exploring the darkness from which we come
at birth and to which we return at death.

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The journey inward and the spiritual and the
theological, the journey outward of the space

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programs are very closely connected to exploration
and it ties in, in my mind, perfectly and

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beautifully in this place.”

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I’m David Oh, lead flight director for the
Mars Curiosity rover and this is your Curiosity

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rover report.

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Over the past seven days, we‘ve been doing
checkouts of the arm instruments including

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the MAHLI imager, which is a very versatile
instrument that can focus on things that are

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close-by and very far away.

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The imager has generated some spectacular
shots of the underbelly of the rover and its

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wheels, of a 1909 Lincoln penny that we mounted
on the rover for calibration purposes so we

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can check that the camera is operating properly.

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And its also been used to generate a nice
self-portrait of the Mastcam on the rover,

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a portrait that’s taken by the arm looking
back, the same way you would take a picture

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of yourself using a cell phone.

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We’ve also been testing the APXS instrument,
an instrument for doing contact mineralogy

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science.

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It generates spectra that allow us to identify
the minerals that are present in a rock.

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When the checkout of the arm is complete,
we’ll be continuing our drive to the scientific

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target, Glenelg, but we’ll be stopping along
the way to take some video of the Martian

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moons, Phobos and Deimos, passing overhead.

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We control the rover from Earth, but we have
to operate it on Mars time.

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A Martian day is 39 minutes longer than an
Earth day.

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So every day, the whole operations team comes
in 40 minutes later, every single day, to

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send commands to the rover.

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In the month after landing, my whole family
joined me on Mars time and we got to jump

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a time zone a day for 30 days going all the
way around the clock.

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As we did that, we got to explore Mars here
at JPL and to explore Los Angeles at night,

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and it was a great adventure for the whole
family.

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This has been your Curiosity rover report.

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Check back for more updates on what’s happening
on Mars.

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Mars Science Laboratory team members at Headquarters
were at Washington’s Florida House for Mars

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Day in DC, a celebration of the Curiosity
rover’s successful landing on the Red Planet.

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NASA Mars Program Director Doug McQuistion
briefed members of Congress and other invited

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guests on what science Curiosity is expected
to provide during its two-year mission.

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Additional presentations detailed how Curiosity
and its suite of ten science instruments will

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conduct in Gale Crater the most difficult
planetary exploration mission ever undertaken.

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NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver delivered
the keynote address at the SPACE 2012 Conference

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in Pasadena, California.

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The annual American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics gathering is considered the

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premier event on space technology, policy,
programs, management, and education.

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“This is truly something that we work with
together as industry and government and academia

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and we look forward to strengthening our partnerships
as our commercial spaceflight industry assumes

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even more of a role in this new era of human
and space scientific space exploration.”

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The theme of this year’s AIAA conference
was “Creating a Sustainable Vision for Space”.

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Also at the conference, the mission team at
JPL for NASA's long-lived Mars Exploration

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Rovers Spirit and Opportunity was presented
the Haley Space Flight Award for the advancement

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of the art, science or technology of astronautics.

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In its eighth year of operation on Mars, Opportunity
is surveying a crater rim about 5,200 miles

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from Curiosity’s current position.

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Spirit explored the Red Planet for more than
six years, 24 times longer than its planned

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three-month mission.

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Past recipients of the Haley Space Flight
Award include astronauts Alan Shepard, John

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Glenn, Tom Stafford, Bob Crippen, Kathy Sullivan
and the crew of STS-125, the last space shuttle

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servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

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After weathering Hurricane Isaac, engineers
at the Stennis Space Center returned to testing

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the J-2X engine!

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The first post-storm J-2X test firing was
of the engine’s upper stage that lasted

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250 seconds.

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The J-2X will help power NASA’s Space Launch
System, the new heavy-lift rocket that will

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send astronauts beyond Earth orbit.

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NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck joined
state and local officials at the University

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of Texas at El Paso for the official opening
of UTEP’s Center for Space Exploration Technology

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Research, or cSETR (C-STIR), and the NASA
Science, Engineering, Mathematics and Aerospace

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Education Laboratory located in the university's
engineering building.

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“It’s the kind of collaborative activity
that we, now at NASA recognize as essential

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to how we are trying to form the future of
space technology at the agency.”

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The NASA-funded cSETR conducts analytical,
experimental and computational research in

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energy and propulsion engineering.

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The Aerospace Education Laboratory offers
technology and innovation learning opportunities

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to students of all ages, from K-12 to post-graduate
and life-long learners.

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“Three, two, one, release…”

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The vertical water drop tests continue for
the Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle at the

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Langley Research Center’s Hydro Impact Basin.

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The latest drop for Orion was from a height
of 25 feet.

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Unlike last summer’s swing drop tests that
certified Orion for water landings, these

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vertical drops tests help predict Orion’s
landing loads.

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Orion is scheduled to launch in 2014 on its
Exploration Flight Test-1 and travel 15 times

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deeper into space than the International Space
Station before returning to Earth.

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The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft that is Space
Shuttle Endeavour’s ride for the cross country

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journey to California made its arrival at
Kennedy Space Center.

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Like Discovery and Enterprise before it, Space
Shuttle Endeavour is taking its turn in the

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ferry flight spotlight.

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The first class piggyback ride atop the SCA
culminates for NASA’s youngest orbiter at

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Los Angeles International Airport – with
appearances along the way in the skies over

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several NASA installations including the Johnson
Space Center, Stennis, Michoud, White Sands

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and the Ames Research Center.

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Endeavour is scheduled to arrive at its new
home, the California Science Center, on October

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13, and go on display October 30.

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Meanwhile, the structure for the new Florida
home of space shuttle Atlantis has been “topped

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out” with its highest beam.

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In a ceremony marking a milestone in the construction
of the 90,000-square-foot exhibit hall that

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will house the orbiter at the Kennedy Space
Center Visitor Complex, the 38-foot-long,

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one-ton steel beam was lifted 116 feet off
the ground and locked into place.

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A small tree and an American flag were fitted
onto the beam that bore the signatures of

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hundreds of NASA employees.

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“Atlantis, the last space shuttle to ever
fly in space is going to look like it actually

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is in space here at the Kennedy Space Center
and I can’t think of a more fitting place

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to tell that story.”

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On November 2 Atlantis will be the last shuttle
to move out of the operational area at KSC.

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The shuttle will be transported by the orbiter
transport vehicle, or OTV from the Vehicle

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Assembly Building to the Visitor Complex.

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Three future residents of the International
Space Station previewed their upcoming mission

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during a media briefing at the Johnson Space
Center.

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Expedition 34 and 35 crew members Tom Marshburn
of NASA, Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space

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Agency and Roman Romanenko of the Russian
Federal Space Agency are set to launch to

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the station Dec. 5.

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When they arrive at the world’s only research
laboratory in microgravity, the trio will

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join NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian
cosmonauts Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy

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who are scheduled to launch to the ISS from
Russia on October 15.

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Meanwhile, the current crew onboard station
got rid of some unneeded items.

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After spending almost two months attached
to the Harmony module, the Japanese “Kounotori”

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Transfer Vehicle, or HTV-3, was unberthed
and released by Expedition 32 crew members

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Joe Acaba and Aki Hoshide.

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An engine firing sent the trash-packed cargo
vehicle back into Earth’s atmosphere to

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burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

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The HTV-3 craft launched from the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency’s launch site in Tanegashima,

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Japan, July 21 and arrived at the station
six days later to deliver several tons of

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food, supplies and science experiments for
the station residents.

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Ten years ago on September 16, 2002, Expedition
Five crew member Dr. Peggy Whitson was named

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as the first NASA Science Officer of the International
Space Station.

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Since then, each Expedition crew has had a
NASA Science Officer working with the U.S.

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research community to maximize returns of
station science experiments.

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During her tenure as Science Officer, Whitson
conducted 21 investigations in human life

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sciences and microgravity sciences as well
as commercial payloads.

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The name is Luis Dominguez and I work for
Mars Science Laboratory in the Mission Systems

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Testbed as a Test Conductor.

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I am half Honduran, half Mexican.

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So my mom is from Mexico, Southern Mexico
and my dad’s from Central Honduras.

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I do come from a very hard working family
so I always have that you know that very like

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I’ll work till it’s done you know attitude
and like you know no job is to menial or you

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know to unimportant.

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I mean sometimes things are mundane and you
know but they have to get done.

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At JPL what I do is a lot of trouble shooting
for the most part with the actual internal

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robotics in the rover.

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I’ve been on MSL for about five years now.

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I started off in ATLO, the assembly, test,
and launch operations team, but I started

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there as an intern and then I moved over to
the test bed.

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On a day to day basis I usually just go around
helping people with their tests or if they

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get into certain configurations that they
don’t understand I help them get out of

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them…if they trip fault protection that
we have in the rover.

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I really enjoyed the challenge that they gave
me.

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Wow, like I actually helped built something
that’s on the surface of Mars.

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It’s an amazing feeling.

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And that’s This Week @NASA.

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