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This Week at NASA…

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International Space Station Commander, Suni
Williams is beginning to prepare for her upcoming

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return home.

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The NASA astronaut and two of her Expedition
33 colleagues, Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace

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Exploration Agency, and Russian cosmonaut,
Yuri Malenchenko, are scheduled to make their

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way back to Earth with a parachute-assisted
landing by their Soyuz capsule in rural Kazakhstan

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on November 19, local time.

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The trio has been on the orbiting laboratory
since July.

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Staying on station for Expedition 34 is NASA
astronaut Kevin Ford, and Russian cosmonauts

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Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitsky, all of
whom came aboard just last month.

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Hi, I'm Pan Conrad, deputy principal investigator
of the SAM instrument suite on the Mars Science

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Laboratory and this is your Curiosity rover
update.

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While our robotic explorer has been busy characterizing
the surface of Mars, the SAM team has also

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been busy, but we’ve been looking at something
invisible, the Martian atmosphere.

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SAM, or Sample Analysis at Mars, is not one
instrument, but three, all of which are designed

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to work together to chemically characterize
Mars.

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SAM measures chemical elements and molecules
and we do this by looking at.

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We can bake solid samples until they give
up their volatile components or their gases

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or we can directly inhale the Martian atmosphere
through our inlet ports.

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The tunable laser spectrometer has a special
role for SAM in that it can very sensitively

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detect the organic molecule, methane, which
has been observed from the Earth telescopically

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and also by the Mars Express orbiter at very,
very low limits in the Martian atmosphere.

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We’re trying to discover whether or not
we can see this molecule from the Martian

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surface and if it has any variation from season
to season.

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So we’ve already begun prospecting for methane
and to date we don’t have a definitive detection.

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We’ll continue looking during the course
of the mission.

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In the coming months, wherever Curiosity goes
SAM will continue to sniff the Martian atmosphere

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periodically looking for changes on a seasonal
or maybe even diurnal basis and that will

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tell us something about the dynamics the exchange
between the surface and the atmosphere.

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This has been your Curiosity rover update.

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Check back for more.

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NASA’s Radiation Belt Space Probes mission,
RBSP, has been renamed …

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(SOT: John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator,
NASA’s Science Mission Directorate)

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“The National Aeronautics and Space Adminstration
is pleased to announce the decision to rename

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the Radiation Belts Storm Probes Mission – the
Van Allen Probes.”

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The new name, announced during an event at
the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory,

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is for James Van Allen, the scientist who
discovered the radiation belts surrounding

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the Earth.

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Launched on August 30 and managed by APL,
the newly-renamed twin probes continue to

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follow each other in the same orbit around
the planet.

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The data they return about how the Van Allen
Belts behave during solar storms will help

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scientists and engineers design more robust
satellites and safer spacecraft, as well as

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stronger safeguards for communications systems
and other critical technologies here on Earth.

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The Van Allen Probes also will improve our
understanding of fundamental particle physics

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and acceleration and, thereby, expand our
knowledge of the universe.

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The Marshall Space Flight Center is collaborating
with four other NASA facilities to plan a

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large-scale fire in space.

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Setting the fire on a future test flight should
help mission planners determine how astronauts

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can best fight flames while traveling in deep
space.

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Right now, the role of Marshall engineers
in the NASA Advanced Exploration Systems project

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is to pick which material will provide the
most useful data when set on fire.

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By placing samples in a test chamber mimicking
spacecraft conditions, they’ve narrowed

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their choices from hundreds to just seven.

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Glenn, Johnson, JPL and the White Sands Test
Facility are also participating in the three-year,

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ground-based design project.

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NASA's Associate Administrator for Education
and former astronaut Leland Melvin shared

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his enthusiasm for the agency's scientific
goals and accomplishments before hundreds

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of students and teachers following opening
of the new space shuttle Endeavour exhibit

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at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

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Melvin challenged his listeners to live their
dreams, to pursue studies in science, technology,

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engineering and mathematics, and to never
give up when faced with adversity.

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Melvin later encouraged more than 800 teachers
to avail themselves of the many NASA education

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programs and curricula to help prepare, inspire
and nurture the young minds of today to pursue

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excellence in the STEM disciplines, so they
can be the engineers, scientists and technical

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leaders of tomorrow.

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He noted that teachers not only impact the
lives of the children in their classrooms,

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but the entire community:

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"How can you inspire the next generation of
explorers unless you are inspired yourself?

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To figure out what you need to do to get your
batteries recharged, so that when you go in

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the classroom, you can do it with pep in your
step, and it's assured that next generation

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of explorers will find their way to another
planet one day."

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Thanks to the enterprising efforts of a Bay
Area high-school student, she and 50 of her

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fellow students at their all girls school
heard from experts about STEM-field careers

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women can pursue at NASA.

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Deepika Bodapati, a high school senior at
Presentation High School in San Jose, had

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written the White House about the disparity
of opportunities for girls interested in pursuing

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careers in science, technology, engineering
and math.

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After her note made its way to the Ames Research
Center, seven scientists, administrators and

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managers, all of them women, volunteered to
meet with students at the all-girls school

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and share stories about their careers, education
and keys to success.

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“It’s just important for girls to understand
that they’re a key part of the future of

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what NASA’s going to be doing, both for
the agency as well as for the nation.

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Girls definitely need to be comfortable in
understanding they have a place there.”

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“The array of speakers that they had was
very appropriate.

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They kind of had someone in each field and
with different personality types -- that everyone

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could relate to at least one person.”

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NASA Headquarters’ 30th Annual Honor Awards
recognized employees who’ve made significant

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contributions to their workplace community.

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More than 25 employee teams and individuals
were so honored for their exemplary efforts

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over the past year.

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“They are the heart and soul of NASA.Tthey
help us do all of the hard things that our

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agency is called on to do with enthusiasm
and professionalism.

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I congratulate everyone who’s being recognized
today.”

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While October was Disability Awareness Month,
it’s not too late to recognize the contributions

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of NASA employees like Kelly Gilkey at the
Glenn Research Center.

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Gilkey’s profound hearing loss doesn’t
get in her way of studying and countering

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the effects of long-duration spaceflight on
the human body.

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“I have a sensorineural profound hearing
loss, and I got my first hearing aids when

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I was 18 months old.

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I also recently just got a cochlear implant
in my left ear.

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So all of those have really enabled me to
do my job well.

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I feel really blessed to be living in an age
when technology is so readily available for

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people with hearing loss.”

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My name is William Dean Badboy I am facility
engineer technician number III here at the

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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What I do is I maintain the Mircrodevices
Laboratory.

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I work on the life safety systems, the water
plant, all the air handling units, new installations,

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decommissioning of tools.

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I’m Ojibway from the White Earth Reservation
in Northern Minnesota, reservation where my

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daughter is from.

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I want her to have the best education she
can possibly get.

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I want a lot of culture in that as well.

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I went to college to be an electrician and
they offered me a 10 week internship.

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The work they had me doing I really enjoyed,
they then offered me a job.

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They take my ideas and let me run with them
to help out anywhere possible.

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I really enjoy my job.

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Seventy-six years ago, a group of Caltech
students and experimenters huddled behind

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sandbags in nearby Arroyo Seco in the L.A.
Basin canyon as a rudimentary rocket engine

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burned for about three seconds.

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With that modest beginning, the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory was born; today, JPL is sending

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spacecraft across the solar system and pushing
the boundaries of science.

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To mark the anniversary, JPL hosted a day-long
celebration that included special presentations

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and documentary screenings, live music and
the obligatory birthday party offerings of

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ice cream and cake!

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Nearly 400 people were on hand for the opening
night of the Silicon Valley Jewish Festival

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in Palo Alto, California.

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The program featured a showing of filmmaker
Dan Cohen’s documentary, “An Article of

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Hope.”

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In the film, a tiny Torah recovered from a
World War II concentration camp and brought

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on the ill-fated STS-107 mission by Israeli
astronaut Ilan Ramon serves as a symbol of

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loss, survival and enduring hope.

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After the screening, the Ames Research Center’s
Chief Scientist, Jacob Cohen, presented plaques

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to the families of Ramon, Mission Specialist
Kalpana Chawla, and Pilot Willie McCool, three

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of the seven crew members lost with space
shuttle Columbia in February 2003.

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Thirty years ago, on November 11, 1982, Columbia
was launched on her fifth flight – and the

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first operational shuttle mission.

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Her crew of Commander Vance Brand, Pilot Bob
Overmyer, and Mission Specialists Joe Allen

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and Bill Lenoir deployed
two commercial communications satellites before

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returning safely to Earth five days later.

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Forty-five years ago, on November 9, 1967,
the first test flight of the Saturn V rocket

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was made, with Apollo 4.

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The “all-up” test was the first of the
rocket’s three stages.

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The nine-hour flight also featured the first
reentry into Earth’s atmosphere by the Apollo

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spacecraft at the same speed and angle as
a return from the moon.

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The workhorse of the Apollo program, Saturn
V remains the tallest, heaviest, and most

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powerful rocket ever launched – and the
only vehicle to transport human beings beyond

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low Earth.

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NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Kennedy
Space Center Director Bob Cabana joined present

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and past astronauts to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of Apollo 17 at a special event

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in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan was joined
on stage by Buzz Aldrin, Dave Scott and seven

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other Apollo-era astronauts to reminisce about
the pride and excitement of setting foot on

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the lunar surface.

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Launched on December 7, 1972, the twelve-day
Apollo 17 mission was NASA’s final Apollo

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journey to the moon; Cernan was the 12th and
last man to set foot on the lunar surface.

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The evening concluded with a silent auction
benefiting the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation

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created by the Mercury 7 astronauts.

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And that’s This Week @NASA.

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