TRMM Satellite Reveals Flooding Rains from Massive East Coast Storm

The massive rain storm that stretched from New York to Florida last week dropped some record rainfall and NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite measured that rainfall from space. Those rainfall totals were assembled in a "rain map" created at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Although the heaviest rainfall last week was in the southern United States, flooding was reported in states from Louisiana to northern New York. A rainfall analysis was created made by merging precipitation data from multiple satellites. This Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) analysis used data that were calibrated with TRMM precipitation data. These data are calculated and stored at NASA Goddard and are available within a few hours after being received by satellites.

The analysis indicated that the greatest total rainfall for the past week was over 300 mm (~11 inches) and was located over Alabama and Mississippi. Some of the extremely heavy rainfall in this area was associated with tornado spawning thunderstorms (see: http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/publications_dir/tornadoes_7-10may11.html).

Much of the eastern United States was affected by rainfall totals of over 50 mm (~2 inches). As the weather system moved east, some of the most impressive rainfall totals in the Mid-Atlantic fell between Baltimore, Md. and Charlottesville, Va. On Thursday, March 10, Baltimore set a new daily rainfall record measuring 2.61 inches according to the National Weather Service. Charlottesville received 2.33 inches of rainfall from the system. To the west, Martinsburg, West Virginia also reported a daily record rainfall total of 1.26 inches. Many areas had flooding with totals that were less than the extreme amounts shown on the rainfall analysis.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/eastern-flooding.html

Legendary Fire Trainer Retires After 42 Years

George Hoggard had an extraordinary career by most standards, so it wasn't easy for him to say goodbye to the fire department at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

"People who don't know anything about the space program cannot imagine how exciting it is to work out here," Hoggard said. "The very idea of it lasting 30 years never dawned on me and I never did have any retirement plans because working out here is so much fun. Quite frankly, I'm thinking, 'Why would I want to leave this?'"

As the chief of fire training, Hoggard and his crew worked closely with astronauts to teach them how to handle emergencies on the launch pad or on the ground following a problem. He showed them where to go once they left the shuttle cockpit, such as when to take the elevator and when to go straight to the slidewire basket. He and then-astronaut Charlie Bolden took a ride in one of the baskets in the late 1980s to prove they were safe.

It might look like it would be a thrill ride, sitting inside a basket riding a cable from 195 feet above the launch pad, but Hoggard said it was a very straightforward event.

"Back in those days," Hoggard said, "if you went to Disney World you had to pay a little bit more money for the e-tickets because they were the more exciting rides and when they asked me how the basket ride was, I said, 'If I went to Disney World with my granddaughter and took that ride and had to use an e-ticket, I'd ask for my money back because it wasn't that exciting, it was kind of dull."

Bolden, returning as NASA administrator, gave Hoggard a commemorative medallion during his retirement party the day before space shuttle Discovery lifted off on its final flight, the STS-133 mission.

Hoggard's skill and dedication came across to the astronauts very easily and made the firefighter a true legend at Kennedy, Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach said.

"The astronauts know they can trust him with their lives, and that says an enormous amount about his experience, heart and wisdom," Leinbach said.

It's a far different existence than Hoggard thought he would have. After getting out of the Marines, Hoggard thought he'd go into the family business: law enforcement. His father and brother were both policemen, and Hoggard joined the force. He was assigned to the vice squad and during the next year had some close calls, including getting stabbed and shot at.

"At the end of the year I told my dad, 'Hey, I know you wanted me to be a cop, but I've got to go find a safer job, I don't like being a cop,'" Hoggard said. "Luckily for me he was friends with a fire chief and got me a job on a really good department and he said, 'This is the safest job I can get you,' and I've been a fireman ever since."

Working as a firefighter in southeastern Virginia, Hoggard's career turned again after a friend of his told him about the construction under way on NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

"Quite frankly, I had been on the department up there for eight or nine years and I was tired of freezing on the tail board of a fire engine on Chesapeake Bay in the winter time with the sleet blowing in my face," Hoggard said. "I said, 'If I'm going to continue in this job, I'm going to a warmer climate.'"

Hoggard's firefighting career at Kennedy began with a level of excitement that would become the norm.

"I was really new out here and got to go out to the fire training area and they said three astronauts were going to show up and I didn't know who they were," Hoggard said. "They did everything we asked them to do with extinguishers and the hose and the masks and stuff, part of the training. And they left and I had no idea who they were and six months later they stepped on the moon . . . it was the Apollo 11 crew."

"When the shuttle started up we kind of had to sort of reinvent everything because there wasn't going to be just three astronauts, there were going to be as many as seven astronauts in there," Hoggard said. "It was going to be a completely different ball game so the preparation and planning and training for that was real exciting."

Hoggard and his team taught the astronauts before each launch how to drive the yellow M113 armored personnel carriers. The lessons would be critical if there was an emergency and the crew had to drive out of harm's way.

"I tell the astronauts the shuttle cockpit's got over 2,000 switches, this one's only got two, on and off, and it's easy as it can be," Hoggard said. "If you can drive a tractor and plow a field, you can drive an M113."

Hoggard still has a rule, though: "They said is there a pass/fail to this driving test and I said, 'Yeah, if you hurt the old guy, you're going to fail the test, that's the bottom line, don't hurt the old guy.' "

That approach also was on display when Hoggard was training Leinbach years ago when he and other NASA test directors were learning about rescue procedures.

"One day we went out to their fire training area for rappelling training," Leinbach said. "During my first rappel, George was on the belay line. About halfway down the side of the 50-foot building he cinched up on the rope and I slammed into the concrete wall and hung there until he let up on the rope. I’ll never forget it. I was hanging there and he was on the ground laughing. After what seemed like an eternity, he let me down and we just laughed and laughed until we almost cried."

Hoggard saw different perspectives of NASA when he conducted training classes at the agency's other field centers.

"They ask, 'Have you seen a launch?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, I don't close my eyes,'" he said. "Then they asked, 'Well, what's that like?' Then it dawned on me, there are thousands of people who work for NASA and NASA contractors who have never seen a launch and I've seen many of them and that's just kind of amazing. It's a shame that everybody can't be in the position that I am here at Kennedy."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/hoggardprofile.html

The Marangoni Effect: A Fluid Phenom

What do a wine glass on Earth and an International Space Station experiment have in common? Well, observing the wine glass would be one of few ways to see and understand the experiment being performed in space.

Ever heard someone say their wine has "legs" or "tears of wine?"

Wine legs or tears of wine is a phenomenon manifested as a ring of clear liquid that forms near the top of a glass above the surface of wine. The drops continuously form and fall in rivulets back into the liquid. One factor in the way fluid moves is called Marangoni convection, or flow, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency researchers are very interested in studying it in a gravity-free environment.

Marangoni convection is the tendency for heat and mass to travel to areas of higher surface tension within a liquid. Surface tension is a property of a liquid that causes the surface portion of liquid to be attracted to another surface, such as a drop of mercury that forms a cohesive ball in a thermometer or droplets of water on a well-waxed car. This phenomenon is named after Italian physicist Carlo Marangoni who first studied the phenomenon in the 19th century.

"We are clarifying an unknown phenomenon and that’s very exciting," said Satoshi Matsumoto, a Marangoni science coordinator from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. "Marangoni negatively affects the quality of crystal growth such as semiconductors, optical materials or bio technology materials. The convection also occurs in a heat pipe for heat radiation devices in personal computers, and degrades the radiation performance. Therefore, increased understanding of Marangoni convection not only expands our knowledge of fluid behavior, but also has great significance for production of semiconductor materials and equipment development for both space and ground use."

JAXA has been promoting four Marangoni experiments to fully understand a surface-tension-driven flow in microgravity. It will complete in 2015.

To study how heat and mass move within a fluid in microgravity, investigators are using a larger bridge of silicone oil between two discs. On Earth, that bridge couldn't exist. One of the primary ways heat is transferred on Earth is by buoyancy, where warm air rises and cold air sinks. In space, there is no buoyancy. So investigators heat one disc higher than the other to induce Marangoni convection in that bridge of silicone oil. They are looking at patterns of how fluids move to learn more about how heat is transferred in microgravity.

"It is difficult to observe the effects of Marangoni convection on Earth because the convection is weaker than convection caused by gravity," added Matsumoto. "That is why space experiments of Marangoni convection in a microgravity environment are helpful."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/marangoni.html

Prolific NASA Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark

NASA's versatile Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began orbiting Mars five years ago on March 10, has radically expanded our knowledge of the Red Planet and is now working overtime.

The mission has provided copious information about ancient environments, ice-age-scale climate cycles and present-day changes on Mars.

The orbiter observes Mars' surface, subsurface and atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The spacecraft's large solar panels and dish antenna have enabled it to transmit more data to Earth -- 131 terabits and counting, including more than 70,000 images -- than all other interplanetary missions combined. Yet many things had to go well for the mission to achieve these milestones.

After a seven-month journey from Earth, the spacecraft fired its six main engines for nearly 27 minutes as it approached Mars on March 10, 2006. Mars could not capture it into orbit without this critically timed maneuver to slow the spacecraft. The orbiter's intended path took it behind Mars, out of communication, during most of the engine burn.

"That was tense, waiting until the spacecraft came back out from behind Mars and we had contact," recalled Dan Johnston, now the mission's deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission met all its science goals in a two-year primary science phase. Two extensions, the latest beginning in 2010, have added to the bounty of science returns.

The mission has illuminated three very different periods of Mars history. Its observations of the heavily cratered terrains of Mars, the oldest on the planet, show that different types of ancient watery environments formed water-related minerals. Some of these would have been more favorable for life than others.

In more recent times, water appears to have cycled as a gas between polar ice deposits and lower-latitude deposits of ice and snow. Extensive layering in ice or rock probably took hundreds of thousands to millions of years to form and, like ice ages on Earth, is linked to cyclic changes in the tilt of the planet's rotation axis and the changing intensity of sunlight near the poles.

The present climate is also dynamic, with volatile carbon dioxide and, just possibly, summertime liquid water modifying gullies and forming new streaks. With observations of new craters, avalanches and dust storms, the orbiter has shown a partially frozen world, but not frozen in time, as change continues today.

In addition to its science observations, the mission provides support for other spacecraft as they land and operate on the surface. The orbiter's cameras captured the Phoenix Mars Lander as it parachuted to the surface in 2008 and monitored the atmosphere for dust storms that would affect Phoenix and the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter augmented NASA's Mars Odyssey in performing relay functions for these missions.

JPL's Phil Varghese, project manager for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, said, "The spacecraft is still in excellent health. After five years at Mars, it continues with dual capabilities for conducting science observations, monitoring the Mars environment and serving as a relay."

The orbiter has examined potential landing sites for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, which will land a rover named Curiosity at one of those sites in August 2012. "We are preparing to support the arrival of the Mars Science Laboratory and the rover's surface operations," Varghese said. "In the meantime, we will extend the science observations into a third Martian year." One Mars year lasts nearly two Earth years.

The orbiter's Mars Color Imager has produced more than four Earth years of daily global weather maps. More than 18,500 images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera have resolved features as small as a desk in target areas scattered around the planet that, combined, cover about as much ground as Alaska. More than 36,900 images from the Context Camera cover nearly two-thirds of the surface of Mars at a resolution that allows detection of features the size of large buildings.

The Compact Reconnaissance Spectrometer for Mars has mapped minerals on more than three-fourths of the planet's surface. The Mars Climate Sounder has monitored atmospheric temperature and aerosols with more than 59 million soundings. The Shallow Radar has checked for underground layers in more than 8,600 swaths of ground-penetrating observations.

"Each Mars year is unique, and additional coverage gives us a better chance to understand the nature of changes in the atmosphere and on the surface," said JPL's Rich Zurek, project scientist for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. "We have already learned that Mars is a more dynamic and diverse planet than what we knew five years ago. We continue to see new things."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and partners with JPL in spacecraft operations.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro20110309b.html

Voyager Seeks the Answer Blowin' in the Wind

In which direction is the sun's stream of charged particles banking when it nears the edge of the solar system? The answer, scientists know, is blowing in the wind. It's just a matter of getting NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft in the right orientation to detect it.

To enable Voyager 1's Low Energy Charged Particle instrument to gather these data, the spacecraft performed a maneuver on March 7 that it hadn't done for 21 years, except in a preparatory test last month.

At 9:10 a.m. PST (12:10 p.m. EST), humanity's most distant spacecraft rolled 70 degrees counterclockwise as seen from Earth from its normal orientation and held the position by spinning gyroscopes for two hours, 33 minutes. The last time either of the two Voyager spacecraft rolled and stopped in a gyro-controlled orientation was Feb. 14, 1990, when Voyager 1 snapped a family portrait of the planets strewn like tiny gems around our sun (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00451).

"Even though Voyager 1 has been traveling through the solar system for 33 years, it is still a limber enough gymnast to do acrobatics we haven't asked it to do in 21 years," said Suzanne Dodd, Voyager project manager, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It executed the maneuver without a hitch, and we look forward to doing it a few more times to allow the scientists to gather the data they need."

The two Voyager spacecraft are traveling through a turbulent area known as the heliosheath. The heliosheath is the outer shell of a bubble around our solar system created by the solar wind, a stream of ions blowing radially outward from the sun at a million miles per hour. The wind must turn as it approaches the outer edge of the bubble where it makes contact with the interstellar wind, which originates in the region between stars and blows by our solar bubble.

In June 2010, when Voyager 1 was about 17 billion kilometers (about 11 billion miles) away from the sun, data from the Low Energy Charged Particle instrument began to show that the net outward flow of the solar wind was zero. That zero reading has continued since. The Voyager science team doesn't think the wind has disappeared in that area. It has likely just turned a corner. But does it go up, down or to the side?

"Because the direction of the solar wind has changed and its radial speed has dropped to zero, we have to change the orientation of Voyager 1 so the Low Energy Charged Particle instrument can act like a kind of weather vane to see which way the wind is now blowing," said Edward Stone, Voyager project manager, based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "Knowing the strength and direction of the wind is critical to understanding the shape of our solar bubble and estimating how much farther it is to the edge of interstellar space."

Voyager engineers performed a test roll and hold on Feb. 2 for two hours, 15 minutes. When data from Voyager 1 were received on Earth some 16 hours later, the mission team verified the test was successful and the spacecraft had no problem in reorienting itself and locking back onto its guide star, Alpha Centauri.

The Low Energy Charged Particle instrument science team confirmed that the spacecraft had acquired the kind of information it needed, and mission planners gave Voyager 1 the green light to do more rolls and longer holds. There will be five more of these maneuvers over the next seven days, with the longest hold lasting three hours 50 minutes. The Voyager team plans to execute a series of weekly rolls for this purpose every three months.

The success of the March 7 roll and hold was received at JPL at 1:21 a.m. PST (4:21 a.m. EST) on March 8. But it will take a few months longer for scientists to analyze the data.

"We do whatever we can to make sure the scientists get exactly the kinds of data they need, because only the Voyager spacecraft are still active in this exotic region of space," said Jefferson Hall, Voyager mission operations manager at JPL. "We were delighted to see Voyager still has the capability to acquire unique science data in an area that won't likely be traveled by other spacecraft for decades to come."

Voyager 2 was launched on Aug. 20, 1977. Voyager 1 was launched on Sept. 5, 1977. On March 7, Voyager 1 was 17.4 billion kilometers (10.8 billion miles) away from the sun. Voyager 2 was 14.2 billion kilometers (8.8 billion miles) away from the sun, on a different trajectory.

The solar wind's outward flow has not yet diminished to zero where Voyager 2 is exploring, but that may happen as the spacecraft approaches the edge of the bubble in the years ahead.

The Voyagers were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which continues to operate both spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20110308.html

NASA's Jupiter-Bound Spacecraft Taking Shape in Denver

NASA's Juno spacecraft is currently undergoing environmental testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems near Denver. The solar-powered Juno spacecraft will orbit Jupiter's poles 33 times to find out more about the gas giant's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere. The launch window for Juno from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida opens Aug. 5, 2011.

In its present form, the spacecraft is fully assembled and all instruments have been integrated. A photograph of the fully assembled spacecraft is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/multimedia/juno20110307i.html

In this photo, taken on Jan. 26, Juno had just completed acoustics testing that simulated the acoustic and vibration environment the spacecraft will experience during launch. The photo shows Lockheed Martin technicians inspecting the spacecraft just after the test. All three solar array wings are installed and stowed, and the spacecraft's large high-gain antenna is in place on the top of the avionics vault.

At present, Juno is sealed in a large thermal vacuum chamber, where it is being exposed to the extreme cold and vacuum conditions it will experience on its voyage to Jupiter. The two-week-long test will simulate many of the flight activities the spacecraft will execute during the mission.

Juno is scheduled to ship from Lockheed Martin's facility to Kennedy Space Center in early April, where it will undergo final preparations and launch.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute at San Antonio, Texas. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is building the spacecraft. The Italian Space Agency in Rome is contributing an infrared spectrometer instrument and a portion of the radio science experiment. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20110307.html

Captured From the Ground

On Tuesday, March 1 2011, Dirk Ewers caught the International Space Station (ISS) on camera, as it was passing overhead in the evening sky near Kassel in central Germany. Ewers images show ATV-2 Johannes Kepler and space shuttle Discovery docked with the ISS. Using almost 2,000 of these individual images, he has put together a video sequence of the docked spacecraft passing almost directly overhead.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1885.html

Double Vision: NASA Earth Satellites Prep for Launch

In a rare event, two NASA launch vehicles currently rise above California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, as NASA's two, new Earth monitoring satellites, Glory and Aquarius, ready for their respective launches.

Both the Glory spacecraft and Taurus XL rocket are ready for launch Friday, March 4, at 2:09:43 a.m. PST (5:09:43 a.m. EST). The weather forecast is 100 percent "go," with the possibility of some fog and a low ceiling not expected to be an issue.

The liftoff from Vandenberg Air Force Base (Launch Complex 576-E) is targeted for the middle of a 48-second launch window. Spacecraft separation will occur 13 minutes after launch.

Technical issues with ground support equipment for the Taurus XL launch vehicle led to the scrub of the first launch attempt on Feb. 23.

Data from the Glory mission will allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols affect Earth's climate. Both aerosols and solar energy influence the planet's energy budget -- the amount of energy entering and exiting Earth's atmosphere.

Meanwhile, nearby, the first stage of the Delta II rocket that will carry NASA's Aquarius instrument into low Earth orbit has been raised onto its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-2 (SLC-2).

Scheduled to launch in June, Aquarius' mission will provide monthly maps of global changes in sea surface salinity. By measuring ocean salinity from space, Aquarius will provide new insights into how the massive natural interplay of freshwater among the ocean, atmosphere and sea ice influences ocean circulation, weather and climate.

Aquarius will launch on the Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC)-D spacecraft, built by Argentina's Comision Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE). The SAC-D spacecraft and its Aquarius instrument are scheduled to be shipped from South America to the launch site in late March. The Aquarius instrument was built jointly by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-064

Prototype NASA Education Applications Are A Hit With Students

NASA recently visited two schools to demonstrate prototype versions of four unique education and outreach applications: Train R2, Drive R2, International Space Station Fly Thru, and PlaySpace. These applications were designed to engage students in fun learning activities based on current and future NASA technology through the use of familiar gaming technology. NASA asked these 4th through 8th grade students to share their opinions about the prototypes, as well as offer suggestions for improvements and future applications.

For the Train R2 application, the students learned to control a simulated Robonaut 2 (R2) using simple poses with the Kinect sensor for Xbox 360*. Each student was presented with a series of graphical images of a posed R2. Then, she or he would control the simulated R2 onscreen by using natural body motion. The object was to match as many R2 positions as possible in one minute. At the end of the simulation, a score was given based on how many poses were matched correctly.

The students with the top 15 scores were invited back to use a second application: Drive R2. Drive R2 allowed students to remotely operate the real R2, located at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Using experience gained during the Train R2 activity, students were challenged to demonstrate a pose from a preselected set of positions. Once the student performed a pose correctly, the data was sent to R2 and students were able to view, via webcam, the robot move into that position.

Students were also given the opportunity to experience life as an astronaut in space, through the International Space Station Fly Thru application. This application incorporates real engineering data, photographs and audio into a realistic graphical representation of the space station. Students could then use their own body movements to virtually explore the space station and learn about several of its modules.

The PlaySpace application, developed with real NASA surface data from robotic missions to Mars, allowed students to fly over a graphical representation of the Martian surface. They were also able to experience the difference in gravity between Earth and Mars by jumping and watching how high their avatars were able to jump on the Martian surface.

So what did the student testers think of NASA's four prototypes? Their response was overwhelmingly positive. NASA plans to expand the current series of applications and to continue exploring the possibilities of using emerging gaming technology to educate and inspire the scientists of tomorrow through leveraging familiar and dynamic technologies such as these.

The applications were co-developed by Johnson Space Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/features/prototypes.html

On Approach

After a very cloudy day at Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, the skies cleared to allow a view of this stunning pass of the ISS and Discovery on Feb. 26, 2011. Photographer Rob Cullen, who captured this breath-taking view of the shuttle Discovery and the space station, said, "I could not believe the timing was so fortuitous to show the shuttle closing in on the station. I captured this, what I guess could potentially be, a once in a lifetime image of these two spaceships traveling as separate craft using Canon EOS 40D using eyepiece projection through a hand guided 8.5 inch Newton."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1879.html

NASA Dryden Flies New Supersonic Shockwave Probes

NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center is flight testing two new supersonic shockwave probes to determine their viability as research tools.

The probes were designed by Eagle Aeronautics of Hampton, Va., under a NASA Research Announcement, and manufactured by Triumph Aerospace Systems of Newport News, Va. The probes were first tested in a wind tunnel at NASA's Langley Research Center, also in Hampton.

The new probes are being flown on NASA Dryden's F-15B research test bed aircraft.

Supersonic flight over land is severely restricted in the United States and elsewhere because the sonic booms created by the shock waves propagating from supersonic aircraft are an annoyance to many and can damage private property.

Sonic boom researchers hope the Eagle Aero probes will aid their understanding of supersonic shockwaves. The ultimate goal of NASA's sonic boom research is to find ways to control the shockwaves and lessen the noise, so that it may be possible for supersonic flight to become more routine.

"Using these probes can be a real benefit in understanding and modeling the generation of shock waves and their associated sonic booms," said Dryden research engineer Dan Banks. "They could allow us to accurately define the near-instantaneous flight conditions of the aircraft being probed, while defining that airplane's flow field. At the same time, the probes provide flight condition data on the host aircraft," Banks said.

The primary objective of the flight series is to determine the feasibility of using the Eagle probes for air-to-air shockwave probing. Additional objectives include determining the durability and robustness of the probes in flight, their sensitivity to flight conditions, and the accuracy of the software.

During the initial flight test phase, the probes are attached to an adapter that hangs on the aircraft's centerline instrumented pylon, or CLIP. A large splitter plate separates the CLIP from the F-15B. This helps protect to the aircraft in the unlikely event of flutter, or damaging vibration, that might cause the probes to break off the CLIP.

The two probes are mounted beside each other on the CLIP, one wedge-shaped and the other is conical. Both are designed to make very accurate measurements of supersonic airflow, improving the quality of the shockwave data engineers can glean.

If the probe combo proves robust in this series of tests, researchers could develop a follow-on series with the probes attached one at a time to the F-15B's nose so each has access to the clean airstream in front of the aircraft. Mounting such devices on the aircraft’s nose is the normal and preferred placement, which allows them access to the clean airstream ahead of the carrier aircraft.

Later test flights could include a second supersonic aircraft flying ahead of the probe-carrying F-15 to generate shockwaves for an early look at the probes’ shockwave-sensing capabilities.

Past supersonic shockwave probing efforts, such as the Lancets project flown at Dryden in 2008-2009, used a standard probe. The more streamlined Eagle Aero probes contain accurate high-response transducers that help to eliminate any lag or other errors as they measure upstream and downstream airflow conditions and can measure flow angles.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/shockwave_probes.html

Tracking Maps for NanoSail-D Over the U.S.

NanoSail-D will next be observable with the naked eye from the continental United States, approximately Friday, Feb. 25 through Monday, Mar. 7. NanoSail-D unfurled the first ever 100-square-foot solar sail in low-Earth orbit on Jan. 20 and has been seen and imaged by individuals in several countries around the world. NASA has partnered with SpaceWeather.com to encourage observations of NanoSail-D. Spaceweather.com is offering cash prizes for the best images of this historic, pioneering spacecraft in the amounts of $500 (grand prize), $300 (first prize) and $100 (second prize). World-wide observers have already been successful in capturing images of NanoSail-D as it darts across the sky with a digital camera.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nsd_tracking.html

We Are 'Go' for Exploration

A NASA astronaut, a Mars rover "driver" and a space suit designer joined more than 1,000 middle school students in Long Beach, Calif., to discuss careers in space exploration. The event was held in conjunction with the NASA Project Management Challenge 2011, which brings together NASA scientists and engineers from across the nation. Local area high school students will attend a similar event for the Challenge's second day.

"We want to introduce kids to the diversity of careers that are involved in aeronautics and engineering," said Jim Stoffan, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Education. "These students may be some of our future engineers and scientists so we want to introduce them to science and engineering, and hopefully inspire them."

Heather Paul, a project engineer at Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, pulled open a suitcase full of space suit accessories and asked students if space is really hot or really cold for an astronaut. (The answer: It's hot and cold.) Paul, who is working on life support designs for the next generation of space suits, shared with students that the scientific process they study in school is the foundation for how she tests ideas and plans future designs.

Engineer Ashley Stroupe from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., invited students on stage to temporarily simulate Mars rocks. Once they were lying on the ground, a rover model gently crept over them to demonstrate its flexibility. When Stroupe told students that women made up a lot of the team that worked on the Mars Exploration Rovers, the students let up a cheer.

And they kept cheering when former NASA Astronaut Ken Bowersox took the stage and told them what it is like to live in space. He explained how studying things in space offers scientists new understandings. He also told students how his stay on the International Space Station, along with another NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, illustrates how space exploration can build international teamwork.

"This is an opportunity to mirror the Project Management Challenge, whose theme this year is 'Explore and Inspire,'" explained Shelley Canright, NASA Manager of Elementary, Secondary and eEducation. "For these middle and high school students, we want them to see how our scientists and engineers explore space and continue to be inspired by it. We hope these students will also be inspired!"

The topic of exploration seemed to resonate with students. "They've been looking forward to this field trip and are really intrigued by the idea of space," said Jessica McDaniel, sixth grade math and science teacher at the Doris-Topsy Elvord Academy, a charter school in Long Beach. "It's amazing for them to think 'I'm here on Earth. There's so much more out there.' It's a thrill for them."

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/education/challenge-20110210.html

Leonardo: Frequently Visited ISS Soon to Be Home

The new Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) Leonardo should know its way around the International Space Station by now. This flight marks its eighth and final visit to the orbiting laboratory, its new home.

Leonardo was one of three Multipurpose Logistics Modules built by the Italian Space Agency under contract. It was delivered to Kennedy Space Center in 1998.

Its first spaceflight was on Discovery’s STS-102 mission launched March 8, 2001. Leonardo brought six systems racks to the station: two robotic workstation racks for the station's robotic arm and its four cameras, two DC-to-DC converter units which convert electrical power from the station's solar arrays to a form usable by station systems and experiments, the U.S. lab Avionic 3 and a Crew Health Care System rack.

Just over five months later, it was on its way to the station again on Discovery, this time on STS-105 launched Aug. 10, 2001. Its cargo included two science racks for the U.S. laboratory Destiny, six resupply stowage racks and four resupply stowage platforms. Total cargo weight was about 6,775 pounds.

On June 5, 2002, it launched on STS-111, this time in Endeavour’s payload bay. Leonardo brought a total of 8,062 pounds of supplies and equipment to the station, including a new science rack to house microgravity experiments and a glovebox for experiments that require isolation. In addition to carrying home the results of several science experiments, Leonardo returned to Earth more than 4,000 pounds of equipment and supplies no longer needed aboard the station.

After a shuttle stand-down after the loss of Columbia, Leonardo found itself back in Discovery’s cargo bay for STS-121, launched July 4, 2006. It carried food, clothing and consumables on five resupply stowage racks and three resupply stowage platforms. Also aboard was a minus 80 lab freezer, a European Modular Cultivation System for biology experiments, the Oxygen Generation System and a new cycle ergometer.

STS-126, an almost 16-day flight by Endeavour launched Nov. 14, 2008, marked Leonardo’s next visit to the station. It carried a record 14,000 pounds of equipment and supplies for the ISS. Major cargo included two crew quarters racks, the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, two water reclamation racks, a waste and hygiene compartment and a galley.

Leonardo’s final flight as an MPLM was aboard Discovery on STS-131, launched April 5, 2010. Its cargo included the third minus 80-degree freezer, a window orbital research facility, a crew quarters rack, a resistive exercise rack and resupply stowage racks and platforms.

Two additional MPLMs were built by the Italian Space Agency. The second, Raffaello, flew three missions to the station and is scheduled to fly again on STS-135. The third, Donatello, never flew in space.

On STS-133, again on Discovery, Leonardo will be attached to the station as the PMM. Modifications before this flight included enhanced shielding and modifications to allow station crew members access to its internal equipment.

Its final cargo for the station includes an experiment rack, six resupply stowage platforms and five resupply stowage racks, as well as two integrated stowage platforms. The experiment rack, Express Rack 8, is designed to support and store a variety of experiments.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition26/leonardo.html

STS-133 Crew Arrives at Kennedy

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery's STS-133 pose for a photo on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway after arriving in T-38 jets.

From left, are Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt, Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew, pilot Eric Boe and Commander Steve Lindsey.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1869.html