1 00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:11,340 This Week at NASA… 2 00:00:11,340 --> 00:00:15,620 Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Antares rocket was rolled out to the Mid-Atlantic Regional 3 00:00:15,620 --> 00:00:21,480 Spaceport's Pad-0A at Wallops Flight Facility in preparation for a test flight targeted 4 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:23,360 for later this month. 5 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:29,390 Antares is designed to propel a Cygnus cargo spacecraft laden with experiments and supplies 6 00:00:29,390 --> 00:00:31,679 to the International Space Station. 7 00:00:31,679 --> 00:00:37,140 This test won’t include the spacecraft or a rendezvous with the space station. 8 00:00:37,140 --> 00:00:42,620 That full-up demonstration flight is planned for later this year. 9 00:00:42,620 --> 00:00:46,670 One of the International Space Station’s most prominent scientific experiments has 10 00:00:46,670 --> 00:00:49,180 produced its first results. 11 00:00:49,180 --> 00:00:54,920 The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is a state-of-the-art cosmic ray particle physics detector located 12 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:57,960 on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory. 13 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:03,960 MIT’s Sam Ting, AMS principal investigator, spoke from a science conference in Switzerland 14 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:05,790 where the results were announced. 15 00:01:05,790 --> 00:01:13,979 “Are you reporting today that you think you’ve seen the first evidence of dark matter?” 16 00:01:13,979 --> 00:01:19,100 “Our evidence supports that this is a dark matter, but cannot rule out that the origin 17 00:01:19,100 --> 00:01:25,060 comes from pulsars but because we will be on the space station for the lifetime of the 18 00:01:25,060 --> 00:01:27,829 space station, we should be able to solve this problem.” 19 00:01:27,829 --> 00:01:28,829 Scientists hope that by measuring cosmic rays, AMS will provide new data about the formation 20 00:01:28,829 --> 00:01:29,829 of the Universe, antimatter, and evidence of the mysterious dark matter believed to 21 00:01:29,829 --> 00:01:30,829 make up most of the Universe. 22 00:01:30,829 --> 00:01:32,009 “Space Station is a really nice platform, well suited for this instrument. 23 00:01:32,009 --> 00:01:37,130 It allows for a long, long duration of observation time, which is important to this instrument. 24 00:01:37,130 --> 00:01:41,530 This is a good a good indication of some of the results that are going to come from Space 25 00:01:41,530 --> 00:01:57,770 Station in the future.” 26 00:01:57,770 --> 00:02:03,020 The Materials on International Space Station Experiment, or MISSE, is a multi-generational 27 00:02:03,020 --> 00:02:04,880 study conducted on station. 28 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:10,140 A suitcase-like structure filled with various coin-shaped samples of materials is mounted, 29 00:02:10,140 --> 00:02:15,590 like the AMS, outside the station – exposing the materials to space and the Sun's unfiltered 30 00:02:15,590 --> 00:02:17,760 ultraviolet radiation. 31 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:22,980 Examination of the returned samples has helped qualify a variety of materials for space flight 32 00:02:22,980 --> 00:02:27,620 – including the white protective thermal control coating used on the SpaceX Dragon 33 00:02:27,620 --> 00:02:33,099 spacecraft and the coating used to protect the cooling fins of the Curiosity Mars rover’s 34 00:02:33,099 --> 00:02:34,940 power unit. 35 00:02:34,940 --> 00:02:40,390 And, at the Langley Research Center, scientists and engineers are preparing the Stratospheric 36 00:02:40,390 --> 00:02:46,209 Aerosol and Gas Experiment, or SAGE-3 Earth observing science instrument for its trip 37 00:02:46,209 --> 00:02:48,020 to the International Space Station. 38 00:02:48,020 --> 00:02:54,519 Due for delivery to the ISS by SpaceX late next year or early 20-15, SAGE-3 will help 39 00:02:54,519 --> 00:02:59,810 scientists better understand the Earth’s atmosphere by gathering long-term measurements 40 00:02:59,810 --> 00:03:03,480 of ozone, aerosols and other gases. 41 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:08,349 The International Space Station, the world’s only laboratory in microgravity, is home to 42 00:03:08,349 --> 00:03:14,090 more than 150 scientific experiments and studies. 43 00:03:14,090 --> 00:03:20,150 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found the farthest supernova of the Ia type used by 44 00:03:20,150 --> 00:03:24,260 scientists to measure cosmic distances. 45 00:03:24,260 --> 00:03:30,659 Supernova UDS10Wil, nicknamed SN Wilson after American President Woodrow Wilson, exploded 46 00:03:30,659 --> 00:03:32,959 more than 10 billion years ago. 47 00:03:32,959 --> 00:03:39,019 SN Wilson and its consistent level of brightness will serve as a reference point by which astronomers 48 00:03:39,019 --> 00:03:44,659 can measure the expansion of the Universe and better understand the dark energy accelerating 49 00:03:44,659 --> 00:03:47,850 that expansion. 50 00:03:47,850 --> 00:03:53,000 This animated series of still images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows 51 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,410 the parachute that helped safely land the Curiosity Mars rover last August changing 52 00:03:58,410 --> 00:04:02,049 shape in response to wind on the Martian surface. 53 00:04:02,049 --> 00:04:06,520 Still attached to the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft's back shell, the parachute is 54 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:08,250 about 165 feet long. 55 00:04:08,250 --> 00:04:18,290 The images were captured by MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera. 56 00:04:18,290 --> 00:04:19,290 The month of April is all about Earth here at NASA. 57 00:04:19,290 --> 00:04:23,050 The ‘Earth Month’ section of nasa.gov is full of the latest news, events, and interactive 58 00:04:23,050 --> 00:04:29,630 material -- including a Google Plus Hangout on sea level rise, classic images of Earth, 59 00:04:29,630 --> 00:04:34,470 and feature stories about NASA’s ongoing mission to help understand and sustain our 60 00:04:34,470 --> 00:04:36,530 home planet. 61 00:04:36,530 --> 00:04:42,910 NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer or LADEE spacecraft is undergoing 62 00:04:42,910 --> 00:04:48,410 final checks and testing in preparation for its scheduled launch late this year. 63 00:04:48,410 --> 00:04:52,860 Built at the Ames Research Center, the spacecraft will be the first to collect extensive amounts 64 00:04:52,860 --> 00:04:55,850 of data about the Moon's extremely thin atmosphere. 65 00:04:55,850 --> 00:04:57,250 “We’re pretty excited. 66 00:04:57,250 --> 00:05:00,320 There’s a lot of work that went into this for the team. 67 00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:06,610 It’s really nice to see the spacecraft operate as you expect it to in the environmental testing, 68 00:05:06,610 --> 00:05:10,720 so I can tell the team is all excited about getting it to the range and getting a chance 69 00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,250 to launch it.” 70 00:05:12,250 --> 00:05:17,200 The data collected by LADEE will help prepare future robotic and human missions to the lunar 71 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:20,470 surface. 72 00:05:20,470 --> 00:05:25,730 Members of the media were invited inside the Johnson Space Center’s Chamber A, the world's 73 00:05:25,730 --> 00:05:31,110 largest thermal-vacuum chamber, to check out upgrades being made to prepare the 400,000 74 00:05:31,110 --> 00:05:36,250 cubic foot facility for testing of the agency's James Webb Space Telescope. 75 00:05:36,250 --> 00:05:41,970 Scheduled for launch in 2018, JWST, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is designed 76 00:05:41,970 --> 00:05:49,370 to enable scientists to see farther back into history than ever before. 77 00:05:49,370 --> 00:05:55,510 Forty years ago on April 5, 1973, the Pioneer 11 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral 78 00:05:55,510 --> 00:06:00,700 to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn and eventually, 79 00:06:00,700 --> 00:06:04,070 the far reaches of the solar system and heliosphere. 80 00:06:04,070 --> 00:06:08,630 It was the first probe to encounter and take close-up pictures of Saturn and the second 81 00:06:08,630 --> 00:06:12,220 to fly through the asteroid belt and past Jupiter. 82 00:06:12,220 --> 00:06:18,780 During its flyby of the gas giant on December 2nd, 1974, Pioneer 11 obtained dramatic images 83 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:25,120 of the Great Red Spot and made the first observation of the planet’s immense polar regions. 84 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:30,190 Its 22-and-a-half year mission officially ended when communication with Pioneer 11 was 85 00:06:30,190 --> 00:06:33,620 lost in the fall of 1995. 86 00:06:33,620 --> 00:06:35,500 And that’s This Week @NASA.