1 00:00:07,149 --> 00:00:11,080 This Week at NASA... 2 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:15,849 Outside the International Space Station, Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy of NASA 3 00:00:15,849 --> 00:00:21,430 and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency conducted a 6-hour, 7-minute spacewalk July 4 00:00:21,430 --> 00:00:27,170 9 to replace a communications receiver, relocate grapple bars for future spacewalks and install 5 00:00:27,170 --> 00:00:32,439 cables for a future Russian laboratory module. The spacewalk was the fifth for Cassidy and 6 00:00:32,439 --> 00:00:39,439 the first for Parmitano, who became the first Italian astronaut to walk in space. 7 00:00:39,699 --> 00:00:44,940 NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has departed its last science target in the "Glenelg" area 8 00:00:44,940 --> 00:00:50,940 and begun a many-month journey to the base of Mount Sharp, the mission's main destination. 9 00:00:50,940 --> 00:00:56,070 In the middle of Gale Crater, Mount Sharp exposes many layers where scientists anticipate 10 00:00:56,070 --> 00:01:03,070 finding evidence about how the ancient Martian environment changed and evolved. 11 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:07,689 NASA hosted a media teleconference to share details of a new report that will help define 12 00:01:07,689 --> 00:01:13,250 science objectives for the agency's next Mars rover. Prepared by the NASA-appointed Mars 13 00:01:13,250 --> 00:01:18,670 2020 Science Definition Team, the report is an early, crucial step in developing the mission 14 00:01:18,670 --> 00:01:20,810 and the rover's prime science objectives. 15 00:01:20,810 --> 00:01:27,670 "It really fits well within our approach, our science strategy for Mars of seeking the 16 00:01:27,670 --> 00:01:29,210 signs of life." 17 00:01:29,210 --> 00:01:34,070 "There's really an enormous amount of room for creativity and innovation and partnership 18 00:01:34,070 --> 00:01:41,070 that will allow us to send this next rover to Mars in 2020 that will help us answer some 19 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:57,810 of these core questions." 20 00:01:57,810 --> 00:02:02,740 NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Bill Gerstenmaier was one of 21 00:02:02,740 --> 00:02:07,810 the featured presenters at The Target NEO 2 workshop at Washington's National Academy 22 00:02:07,810 --> 00:02:13,450 of Sciences. Discussion at the event focused on the technical challenges and new capabilities 23 00:02:13,450 --> 00:02:19,080 needed for successful robotic and human exploration of asteroids and other Near Earth Objects 24 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:24,529 -- including NASA's newly proposed initiative to capture and redirect an asteroid for human 25 00:02:24,529 --> 00:02:26,040 study. 26 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:32,989 A press conference in Washington about NASA's Green Propellant Infusion Mission, or GPIM, 27 00:02:32,989 --> 00:02:38,129 gave agency officials an opportunity to discuss the mission's first thruster pulsing test. 28 00:02:38,129 --> 00:02:43,989 The GPIM program is demonstrating a high-performance "green" fuel in space which offers nearly 29 00:02:43,989 --> 00:02:48,180 50 percent better performance and safer handling than traditional hydrazine. 30 00:02:48,180 --> 00:02:52,389 "With this GPIM, the propellant we're talking about today, you can load that spacecraft 31 00:02:52,389 --> 00:02:56,370 and ship it and that changes really the game, right? Of how we do spacecraft processing." 32 00:02:59,049 --> 00:03:03,569 NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden joined Goddard Space Flight Center Director Chris Scolese 33 00:03:03,569 --> 00:03:08,319 for a town hall meeting with employees in the Building 8 auditorium, where Bolden praised 34 00:03:08,319 --> 00:03:13,099 the Goddard community for ongoing contributions to the agency's ground-breaking scientific 35 00:03:13,099 --> 00:03:13,480 achievements. 36 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:18,400 "It's hard to find somebody who can compete with what you do and that's because of the 37 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:23,319 incredible amount of work that you do in Earth science. (butt) I love the term we take the 38 00:03:23,319 --> 00:03:28,329 impossible and make it possible. Or we turn science fiction into science fact and we do 39 00:03:28,329 --> 00:03:35,329 that every single day." NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne of West Palm Beach, 40 00:03:40,430 --> 00:03:44,799 Fla., recently completed testing in Glenn Research Center's Rocket Combustion Lab of 41 00:03:44,799 --> 00:03:50,239 a rocket engine injector nozzle made with advanced "3D printing." technology. This could 42 00:03:50,239 --> 00:03:55,279 lead to more efficient and cost effective manufacturing of rocket engines. 43 00:03:55,279 --> 00:04:01,609 The successful test at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center of a pressurized, large cryogenic 44 00:04:01,609 --> 00:04:06,329 propellant tank made of composite materials -- instead of metal, marked a major space 45 00:04:06,329 --> 00:04:11,879 technology development milestone for the agency. The new composite tank and is considered game 46 00:04:11,879 --> 00:04:16,669 changing because it may reduce the cost and weight of future launch vehicles and other 47 00:04:16,669 --> 00:04:19,750 space missions. 48 00:04:19,750 --> 00:04:25,020 During NASA's first news briefing using Google+, the agency announced that new mapping data 49 00:04:25,020 --> 00:04:29,970 from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX mission shows that the solar system's 50 00:04:29,970 --> 00:04:36,449 tail is shaped like a four-leaf clover. Scientists describe the heliotail, as they call it, in 51 00:04:36,449 --> 00:04:42,300 a paper published in the July 10 edition of the Astrophysical Journal. 52 00:04:42,300 --> 00:04:47,720 On July 15, 2011 -- Pacific Daylight Time, after nearly four years of travel through 53 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:52,919 the solar system, NASA's Dawn spacecraft was was gently captured in orbit by the asteroid 54 00:04:52,919 --> 00:04:57,919 Vesta -- making Dawn the first spacecraft to orbit a main belt asteroid in the region 55 00:04:57,919 --> 00:05:03,470 between Mars and Jupiter. It spent more than 13 months examining the gigantic protoplanet 56 00:05:03,470 --> 00:05:08,789 with all of its sensors before leaving in September 2012. Dawn is now headed for the 57 00:05:08,789 --> 00:05:15,789 dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body between the sun and Neptune not yet visited by a spacecraft. 58 00:05:15,930 --> 00:05:17,710 And that's This Week @NASA.