1 00:00:00,799 --> 00:00:04,980 "Here's some of the stories trending This Week at NASA!" 2 00:00:04,980 --> 00:00:09,720 NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden visited Ames Research Center on March 17 to check 3 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:14,370 out aeronautics and space research facilities at the center -- including the laboratory 4 00:00:14,370 --> 00:00:18,580 for the volleyball-sized free-flying satellites called SPHERES. 5 00:00:18,580 --> 00:00:22,289 These are used on the International Space Station for experiments in space robotics 6 00:00:22,289 --> 00:00:24,609 and spacecraft navigation. 7 00:00:24,609 --> 00:00:29,880 He also saw the center's high-fidelity airport control tower simulator, dubbed Future Flight 8 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,490 Central, where he was briefed on joint research underway with the Federal Aviation Administration 9 00:00:34,490 --> 00:00:40,420 and industry partners on next-generation air traffic management. 10 00:00:40,420 --> 00:00:45,570 NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot spoke to the media on March 17 at Cape Canaveral 11 00:00:45,570 --> 00:00:50,789 Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 -- where two booster stages are being prepared 12 00:00:50,789 --> 00:00:55,660 to launch NASA's Orion spacecraft on its first trip into space, later this year. 13 00:00:55,660 --> 00:01:00,079 Three boosters in all will power the United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket with Orion 14 00:01:00,079 --> 00:01:03,539 on top for its Exploration Flight Test-1. 15 00:01:03,539 --> 00:01:07,830 The two-orbits-around-the- Earth test will provide engineers with important data about 16 00:01:07,830 --> 00:01:12,860 Orion's heat shield and other elements to improve the spacecraft being designed to carry 17 00:01:12,860 --> 00:01:19,120 astronauts to an asteroid, Mars and other deep space destinations. 18 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:23,230 Connor Johnson, the six-year-old from Denver, Colorado who started a White House petition 19 00:01:23,230 --> 00:01:28,380 drive to save NASA's funding, met with Kennedy Space Center Director and former astronaut 20 00:01:28,380 --> 00:01:33,000 Bob Cabana at the KSC Visitor Complex on March 15. 21 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,160 Cabana presented him with an autographed picture and a bolt brought back from the International 22 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:42,970 Space Station on his STS-88 shuttle mission, the first space station construction flight. 23 00:01:42,970 --> 00:01:47,040 Connor, who wants to become an astronaut, would be old enough to do just that right 24 00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:52,880 around the time NASA plans to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. 25 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:58,990 At NASA headquarters, David W. Miller, began his tenure as the agency's new Chief Technologist. 26 00:01:58,990 --> 00:02:03,150 The professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 27 00:02:03,150 --> 00:02:09,030 will be Administrator Bolden's principal advisor on matters concerning agency-wide technology 28 00:02:09,030 --> 00:02:11,170 policy and programs. 29 00:02:11,170 --> 00:02:17,230 Miller has worked with several NASA projects, including SPHERES and the OSIRIS-REx asteroid 30 00:02:17,230 --> 00:02:21,480 sample return mission planned for 2016. 31 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:26,470 A new challenge focused on coastal flooding will be included in the third annual International 32 00:02:26,470 --> 00:02:32,390 Space Apps Challenge -- a "codeathon"-style event to be hosted April 12 and 13 by NASA 33 00:02:32,390 --> 00:02:35,000 and other space agencies around the world. 34 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:40,450 Announced by NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan at the March 19 Climate Data Initiative launch 35 00:02:40,450 --> 00:02:45,430 at the White House, The Coastal Inundation in Your Community challenge is one of four 36 00:02:45,430 --> 00:02:51,130 climate-related challenges using data provided by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 37 00:02:51,130 --> 00:02:54,950 Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. 38 00:02:54,950 --> 00:03:01,000 The challenge encourages entrepreneurs, technologists, and developers to create and deploy data-driven 39 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:06,480 visualizations and simulations to help people understand their exposure to coastal-flooding 40 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:08,990 hazards. 41 00:03:08,990 --> 00:03:13,270 The next two crews bound for the International Space Station continued preparing for their 42 00:03:13,270 --> 00:03:14,270 missions. 43 00:03:14,270 --> 00:03:19,310 At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 39/40 Flight Engineer Steve Swanson 44 00:03:19,310 --> 00:03:25,300 of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev conducted a fit check in 45 00:03:25,300 --> 00:03:28,060 their Soyuz spacecraft -- they launch in late March. 46 00:03:28,060 --> 00:03:33,630 Meanwhile, a news conference was held at Johnson Space Center with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, 47 00:03:33,630 --> 00:03:39,220 Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst -- the 48 00:03:39,220 --> 00:03:43,990 crew of Expedition 40/41 -- scheduled to launch in late May. 49 00:03:43,990 --> 00:03:48,160 And the current crew onboard the orbiting laboratory helped bring space a little closer 50 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:53,709 to viewers of National Geographic's two-hour Live From Space program The show featured 51 00:03:53,709 --> 00:03:58,599 details about the science and the mission of the ISS. 52 00:03:58,599 --> 00:04:04,819 To celebrate the 24th anniversary of the April 24, 1990 launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, 53 00:04:04,819 --> 00:04:10,209 astronomers have released an infrared image of an active region of star birth, located 54 00:04:10,209 --> 00:04:14,720 64-hundred light years away in a small portion of the Monkey Head Nebula. 55 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:20,120 The mosaic reveals dense knots of gas and dust silhouetted against glowing gas. 56 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:25,639 Hubble is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency. 57 00:04:25,639 --> 00:04:31,289 Using cameras aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, scientists have created the 58 00:04:31,289 --> 00:04:36,039 largest high resolution mosaic of our moon's north polar region. 59 00:04:36,039 --> 00:04:41,030 Constructed from 10-thousand-581 pictures, there's enough detail in the mosaic to see 60 00:04:41,030 --> 00:04:44,560 textures and subtle shading of the lunar terrain. 61 00:04:44,560 --> 00:04:49,139 The entire image measures nearly 867-billion pixels total. 62 00:04:49,139 --> 00:04:50,729 And that's what's up ... This Week at NASA.