NASA Announces Global Climate Change Education Awards

NASA has awarded $6.1 million in cooperative agreements to 15 organizations across the United States to enhance learning through the use of NASA's Earth Science resources. The selected organizations include colleges and universities, nonprofit groups, museums, science centers and a school district.

The winning proposals illustrated innovative approaches to using NASA content to support elementary, secondary and undergraduate teaching and learning, and through lifelong learning. There is a particular emphasis on engaging students using NASA Earth observation data and Earth system models.

Each cooperative agreement is expected to leverage NASA's unique contributions in climate and Earth system science. These grants support NASA's goal of engaging students in the critical disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and inspiring the next generation of explorers.

The 15 proposals will fund organizations in 12 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Dakota, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. Winning proposals were selected through a merit-based, peer-reviewed competition. The awards have up to a three-year period of performance and range in value from about $170,000 to $650,000.

The cooperative agreements are part of a program Congress began in fiscal year 2008. For a list of selected organizations and projects descriptions, click on "Selected Proposals" and look for "Global Climate Change Education" at:

http://nspires.nasaprs.com

For information about NASA's Education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

NASA Celebrates Earth Science Week

Every day at NASA scientists study changes on our home planet, and a significant portion of that study focuses on changes in our oceans. To showcase some of that research, NASA is releasing six short videos in commemoration of Earth Science Week 2009. The videos highlight the connection between climate change and our oceans.

The theme of Earth Science Week (October 11 through 17) this year is "Understanding Climate." The six NASA videos complete a series called "Tides of Change," which all focus on the ocean-climate connection. Each video features a specific component of the connection, such as marine life or the water cycle.

Another highlight of NASA's Earth Science Week contributions is a live educational webcast on October 14 at 1 p.m., EDT. Classrooms around the country will participate in this live event that focuses on Earth science discoveries and careers. Two oceanographers will discuss their careers, illustrate NASA’s unique, space-based view of the oceans and answer participant questions. Watch the webcast here.

Also part of NASA's offerings, the agency's Global Climate Change Web site will feature these videos and a 3D interactive, "Eyes on Earth." The downloadable Eyes on Earth application allows users to observe the paths of satellites that study our planet, learn about related missions and more.

Earth Science Week, organized by the American Geological Institute, encourages people everywhere to explore our planet and learn about geoscience fields.

Though Earth Science Week 2009 only lasts through October 17, At NASA every week is Earth science week, as scientists continue to learn about our changing planet and what drives those changes. A world of Earth science exploration is all at your fingertips and on-line from NASA's Earth Web site any day of the week.

Related Links:

› "Tides of Change" video series
› Earth Science Week education resources from NASA
› NASA's Earth site
› October 14 webcast
› NASA's Climate page
› Eyes on Earth
› American Geological Institute's Earth Science Week site

NASA Television to Broadcast Cargo Ship Arrival at Space Station

The residents of the International Space Station will receive a new shipment of food, fuel and supplies at 8:41 p.m. CDT on Saturday, Oct. 17. NASA Television's coverage of the ship's arrival at the station will begin at 8:15 p.m.

The Russian ISS Progress 35 cargo ship, filled with more than two tons of supplies for the station, is set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 8:14 p.m. There will be no television coverage of the launch.

Expedition 21 Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams, Nicole Stott, Roman Romanenko, Max Suraev and Bob Thirsk will observe the event from aboard the station as the unpiloted craft automatically docks to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment.

For NASA Television streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA Television to Broadcast Cargo Ship Arrival at Space Station

The residents of the International Space Station will receive a new shipment of food, fuel and supplies at 8:41 p.m. CDT on Saturday, Oct. 17. NASA Television's coverage of the ship's arrival at the station will begin at 8:15 p.m.

The Russian ISS Progress 35 cargo ship, filled with more than two tons of supplies for the station, is set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, Oct. 14 at 8:14 p.m. There will be no television coverage of the launch.

Expedition 21 Commander Frank De Winne and Flight Engineers Jeff Williams, Nicole Stott, Roman Romanenko, Max Suraev and Bob Thirsk will observe the event from aboard the station as the unpiloted craft automatically docks to the station's Pirs Docking Compartment.

For NASA Television streaming video, downlink and schedule information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA Offers Media Satellite Interviews Oct. 21 for Ares I-X Launch

NASA's Ares I-X Deputy Mission Manager Jon Cowart is available for satellite interviews from 6 to 9 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 21. He will conduct the interviews from the rocket's launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

To interview Cowart, reporters should contact Amber Philman at 321-861-0370 by noon on Oct. 20. NASA Television will broadcast b-roll of the Ares I-X from 5:30 to 6 a.m. at analog satellite AMC-6 at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 5C, 3800 MHz, vertical polarization, with audio at 6.8 MHz.

The Ares I-X rocket is targeted to launch Tuesday, Oct. 27 on a 28-mile high flight test. The flight test will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I rocket.

In 2007, Cowart became the senior project manager responsible for all modifications to the launch pad, Vehicle Assembly Building, and mobile launcher platform for Ares I-X. In December 2008, he was chosen as the deputy mission manager for Ares I-X. As part of the Mission Management Office, he is responsible for the Ares I-X flight test mission. Cowart graduated from Georgia Tech in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering and an Air Force commission.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

To follow the Ares I-X flight test on Twitter, go to:

http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Ares_I_X

For information about Ares I-X, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/aresIX

Andromeda in Ultraviolet

Close

In a break from its usual task of searching for distant cosmic explosions, NASA's Swift satellite acquired the highest-resolution view of a neighboring spiral galaxy ever attained in the ultraviolet. The galaxy, known as M31 in the constellation Andromeda, is the largest and closest spiral galaxy to our own. This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high (100 arcminutes by 50 arcminutes).

NASA to Reveal Data Showing a New View of Our Galaxy

NASA will hold a NASA Science Update at 2:15 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 15, to discuss new science data of our galaxy obtained from the agency's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, spacecraft. NASA Television and the agency's Web site will provide live coverage of the briefing from the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW, in Washington.

The briefing participants are:

- David McComas, IBEX spacecraft principal investigator and assistant vice president, Space Science and Engineering Division, Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio
- Eric Christian, IBEX deputy mission scientist, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
- Rosine Lallement, senior scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris
- Lindsay Bartolone, lead of Education and Public Outreach at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago
- Don Mitchell, Cassini spacecraft instrument scientist, IBEX co-Investigator, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

Reporters unable to attend the briefing may ask questions by telephone. To reserve a telephone line, journalists should e-mail their name, media affiliation and telephone number to Sonja Alexander at:

sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

For more information about NASA TV schedules, downlinks and streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

NASA Portable Hyperbaric Chamber Technology Finds Home on Earth

NASA has signed a patent license agreement with a California company to improve the medical community's access to hyperbaric chambers used to treat many medical conditions and emergencies. OxyHeal Medical Systems Inc. of National City, Calif., will develop new products based on technologies NASA originally developed for space.

Hyperbaric chambers create an environment in which the atmospheric pressure of oxygen is increased above normal levels. The high concentrations of oxygen can reduce the size of gas bubbles in the blood and improve blood flow to oxygen-starved tissues.

"These technologies will allow OxyHeal to develop new products capable of providing life-saving treatments and care to patients in remote areas that may not have access to large, fixed-site hyperbaric chamber facilities," said Ted Gurnee, president of OxyHeal. Additionally, the company is working on solutions that involve large portable hyperbaric chambers for possible use in treatment of disaster victims.

The partially exclusive patent license agreement allows the company to use three technologies developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston that are associated with inflatable spacecraft modules and portable hyperbaric chambers.

NASA developed the technologies as part of a program to plan for how astronauts in space might be treated for decompression sickness. Decompression sickness, commonly called "the bends," can occur in astronauts as they undergo pressure changes returning from spacewalks and in divers as they return to the water's surface.

In addition to treating decompression sickness, hyperbaric chamber therapy on Earth also commonly provides treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning, crush injuries, healing problem wounds, soft tissue infections, significant blood loss and other ailments.

The NASA inventors of the portable hyperbaric chamber, Dr. James Locke, William Schneider and Horacio de la Fuente, recently were recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium with a Notable Technology Development Award.

"NASA has a long history of making space-aged technologies available for commercialization, creating new markets that power the economy," said Michele Brekke, director of the Innovation Partnership Program Office at Johnson. "These commercial products and services, known as 'spinoffs,' allow the taxpayers to benefit from space exploration."

For more information about NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program Office, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/home

NASA Announces Commercial RLV Technology Roadmap Project

NASA is partnering with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop a technology roadmap for the commercial reusable launch vehicle, or RLV, industry.

"NASA is committed to stimulating the emerging commercial reusable launch vehicle industry," said Lori Garver, deputy administrator at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "There is a natural evolutionary path from today's emerging commercial suborbital RLV industry to growing and developing the capability to provide low-cost, frequent and reliable access to low Earth orbit. One part of our plan is to partner with other federal agencies to develop a consensus roadmap of the commercial RLV industry's long-range technology needs."

The study will focus on identifying technologies and assessing their potential use to accelerate the development of commercial reusable launch vehicles that have improved reliability, availability, launch turn-time, robustness and significantly lower costs than current launch systems. The study results will provide roadmaps with recommended government technology tasks and milestones for different vehicle categories.

"Low-cost and reliable access to space will deliver significant benefits to all NASA's existing missions, from science to human exploration to aeronautics, as well as to our nation's security and to national economic growth," said Doug Comstock, director of NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program at NASA Headquarters. "Part of our plan is to apply lessons learned from the recent past and also the great successes of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in stimulating the American commercial airplane industry nearly 100 years ago."

This NASA and Air Force study will begin at the Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange 2009, held in Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 26-29. NASA and the Air Force Research Lab, with participation from the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation, will meet with representatives from the commercial RLV industry to explore and understand their long-range growth plans and the technology they could use to implement those plans successfully.

NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program is leading the study. For more information about the Innovative Partnerships Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/home

For more information about the Commercial RLV Technology Roadmap study, visit:

http://commercialspaceinitiatives.arc.nasa.gov

For more information about the Commercial and Government Responsive Access to Space Technology Exchange 2009, visit:

http://www.usasymposium.com/craste

NASA Launches Tweetup for Space Shuttle Atlantis Liftoff in Florida

For the first time, NASA Twitter followers are invited to view a space shuttle launch in person at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA is hosting this unique Tweetup on Nov. 11 and 12. Space shuttle Atlantis is targeted to launch at 4:04 p.m. EST, Nov. 12 on its STS-129 mission to the International Space Station.

"This will be NASA's fifth Tweetup for our Twitter community," said Michael Cabbage, director of the News Services division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Each event has provided our followers with inside access to NASA personnel, including astronauts. The goal of this particular Tweetup is to share the excitement of a shuttle launch with a new audience."

NASA will accommodate the first 100 people who sign up on the Web. An additional 50 registrants will be added to a waitlist. Registration opens at noon EDT on Friday, Oct. 16. To sign up and for more information about the Tweetup, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

The two-day event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a "meet and greet" session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

To follow NASA programs on Twitter visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate

For more information about space shuttle Atlantis' STS-129 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

Black Holes Go 'Mano a Mano'

Close

This image of NGC 6240 contains new X-ray data from Chandra (shown in red, orange, and yellow) that has been combined with an optical image from the Hubble Space Telescope originally released in 2008. In 2002, Chandra data led to the discovery of two merging black holes, which are a mere 3,000 light years apart. They are seen as the bright point-like sources in the middle of the image.

Scientists think these black holes are in such close proximity because they are in the midst of spiraling toward each other -- a process that began about 30 million years ago. It is estimated that they holes will eventually drift together and merge into a larger black hole some tens or hundreds of millions of years from now.

Finding and studying merging black holes has become a very active field of research in astrophysics. Since 2002, there has been intense interest in follow-up observations of NGC 6240, as well as a search for similar systems. Understanding what happens when these exotic objects interact with one another remains an intriguing question for scientists.

The formation of multiple systems of supermassive black holes should be common in the universe, since many galaxies undergo collisions and mergers with other galaxies, most of which contain supermassive black holes. It is thought that pairs of massive black holes can explain some of the unusual behavior seen by rapidly growing supermassive black holes, such as the distortion and bending seen in the powerful jets they produce. Also, pairs of massive black holes in the process of merging are expected to be the most powerful sources of gravitational waves in the Universe.

NASA to Hold Symposium for Small Businesses

NASA will host its second annual NASA/JPL Small Business Symposium and Awards Ceremony Nov. 16 and 17 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel and Conference Center, 5701 Marinelli Rd., Bethesda, Md.

The symposium provides a forum for attendees to learn about NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Pasadena, Calif., and agency plans for future missions in space and Earth science.

Attendees will learn about the skills, resources and technologies needed to participate in the agency's missions, programs and research. Business-to-business networking with NASA, JPL and prime contractors will be the objective throughout the event. Participation in this symposium is open to industry, academia and small businesses. The registration deadline for the symposium is Nov. 9.

The two-day event will culminate with the NASA Small Business Industry and Advocates Awards Ceremony. The NASA Small Business Awards recognize outstanding contributions NASA employees and industry representatives have made in support of the agency's small business program.

The Business Opportunities Office at JPL and NASA's Office of Small Business Programs are hosting the symposium.

To register for the symposium, visit: http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/boo/2009sbs .

For information about NASA's Office of Small Business Programs, visit: http://www.osbp.nasa.gov .

For information about JPL's Business Opportunities Office, visit: http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/boo .

NASA Selects High School Students for Inspire Education Program

NASA has selected 1,732 high school students from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to participate in its Interdisciplinary National Science Program Incorporating Research Experience, also known as Inspire. The Inspire project is designed to encourage students in grades nine through 12 to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The selectees will participate in an online learning community in which students and parents have the opportunity to interact with their peers and NASA engineers and scientists. It also provides appropriate grade-level educational activities, discussion boards and chat rooms for participants and their families to gain exposure to the many career opportunities at NASA.

The selected students will have the option to compete for workshops and internships at NASA facilities and participating universities throughout the nation during the summer of 2010. The summer experience provides students a hands-on opportunity to investigate careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The INSPIRE project is part of NASA's education efforts to engaging and retaining students in disciplines critical to the agency's missions.

For information about the program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education/INSPIRE

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education