BIGELOW AEROSPACE SUCCESS WITH GENESIS 2

GENESIS 2 RENDER

PLANNED BIGELOW MODULES


Genesis II Calls Home, Says It’s Doing Fine.
Bigelow Aerospace Confirms Space Module has Successfully Expanded and Functioning Well.

Las Vegas, NV 06/28/07 – Bigelow Aerospace has established contact with its second pathfinder spacecraft, Genesis II. Launched earlier Thursday from Yasny, Russia, Mission Control in North Las Vegas, Nev., made first contact at 2:20 p.m. PDT.
Initial data suggests sufficient voltage powering up Genesis II’s batteries as well as expected air pressure. While the actual confirmation of solar panel deployment and spacecraft expansion are expected later, the data suggests that deployment and expansion have been successful.
Before contact, successful communication was considered a long shot on Genesis II’s first pass over the ground station in Fairfax, Va. Elevation for the pass was considered low for a successful contact.
“We don’t even talk to Genesis I that low,” Program Manager Eric Haakonstad said.
To the surprise of those gathered in Mission Control and shouts of “We got it” echoing through the room, contact was established and Genesis II immediately began sending data back to Earth on its condition.
After a quick celebration of cheers and hugs, the Bigelow Aerospace Mission Control staff immediately began the work of processing the data being returned from Genesis II.
Genesis II is the second experimental pathfinder spacecraft designed to test and confirm systems for future manned commercial space modules planned by Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace The privately-funded space station module was launched atop a Dnepr rocket at 8:02 a.m. PDT from the ISC Kosmotras Yasny Cosmodrome, located in the Orenburg region of Russia, and was inserted into orbit at 8:16 a.m. PDT at an inclination of 64 degrees.

In addition to the initial communications pass, there will be further passes over the Virginia ground station on Thursday, as well as communication windows with Bigelow Aerospace ground stations in Las Vegas, Hawaii and Alaska. Communications for much of the first day will be devoted to the determination of spacecraft status and health, with the first images from Genesis II’s 22 interior and exterior cameras to arrive in the coming days.
Among those images will be items and pictures sent up by paying participants in the Bigelow Aerospace “Fly your Stuff” program. The general public got a chance last fall to purchase slots to fly their pictures and memorabilia into space. Bigelow Aerospace hopes to photograph the photos and items in orbit and display them on this site.
In the coming weeks, BA also hopes to activate the first-ever Space Bingo game aboard Genesis II as a fun activity for the public.
The new spacecraft follows Genesis I, which was launched from Yasny on July 12, 2006, and continues to successfully return data and images from Earth orbit. Genesis II is identical in size and appearance to Genesis I – approximately 15 feet (4.4 meters) in length and 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) in diameter at launch, expanding to 2.54 meters (eight feet) in diameter after expansion in orbit.
Inside is where the differences can be seen, as Genesis II includes include a suite of additional sensors and avionics that didn’t fly on Genesis I. Moreover, while Genesis I contained 13 video cameras, Genesis II will nearly double that figure to 22 cameras located on both the inside and outside of the spacecraft.
Like other BA spacecraft, Genesis II employs a unique architecture with an expandable outer surface that was wrapped around a central core at launch and expanded through air inflation in orbit. The skin is made of several layers that include proprietary impact-resistant materials.

Testing on the ground has shown that the expandable shells of a Bigelow module are much more resistant to space debris than the modules on the International Space Station.

Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert T. Bigelow was on site in Yasny to witness the launch with other BA employees, while other BA personnel were gathered at Mission Control in North Las Vegas.
Bigelow Aerospace Program Manager Eric Haakonstad says with the experience of Genesis I, they were better primed for the launch of Genesis II. “With Genesis I, it was our first rodeo. We didn’t know exactly what to expect,” Haakonstad says. “This time, we were able to perform rehearsals and were more prepared for the launch phase.”
That said, a brief communications difficulty in Russia increased nerves in Mission Control, as there was a delay in confirming Genesis II’s separation from the Dnepr rocket. “Any deviation from nominal magnifies the anxiety. When it came in four minutes later, it was a big relief,” Haakonstad says.
Bigelow Aerospace has received just the initial data from Genesis II, and expects more extensive data and imagery in the coming days. BA will provide updates and images from Genesis II on this site.

SPACE JUNK DUMP : ATMOSPHERE BURN

Space station crew prepare to dump space junk.

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two crewmen aboard the International Space Station on Thursday prepared for a spacewalk during which more than 1,600 pounds (726 kg) of obsolete gear will be tossed overboard and left to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.
Space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Clay Anderson were due to begin a 6-1/2-hour spacewalk on Monday to make room and prepare equipment for the arrival of new research modules built by Europe and Japan.
Their tasks include jettisoning a refrigerator-sized device containing ammonia that was part of the station's first cooling system. NASA upgraded the station's power and cooling systems and no longer needs the 1,400-pound (635-kg) tank.
NASA managers initially had planned to return the ammonia tank to Earth on a space shuttle. But with only 14 flights remaining to the outpost before the U.S. shuttle fleet is retired in three years, there was no room for the carrier rack needed to transport the device in the shuttle's cargo bay.
NASA said ditching the tank was the best option available even though the agency dislikes creating more space junk.
"We agonized over this for a very long time before we came to this decision," said deputy space station program manager Kirk Shireman.
Anderson also will release a 212-pound (96-kg) camera stand that is taking up needed space on a storage platform. NASA's immediate concern is that the jettisoned objects do not fly back into the station's orbit.

CRASH AND BURN

The discarded equipment is expected to remain in space for at least 300 days before friction from crashing into atmospheric particles drags them into the atmosphere.
The camera stand is expected to burn up completely, but chunks of the ammonia tank as heavy as 39 pounds (17.5 kg) could survive re-entry and fall to Earth.
NASA said that while the debris is most likely to land in an ocean, there is about a 1 in 5,000 chance it will hit a populated area.
The agency said tracking radars will follow the objects until they are about two hours away from atmospheric re-entry. Warnings would be issued if the debris seems likely to pose a threat.
Also on Thursday, the shuttle Endeavour astronauts dressed in their bright-orange pressurized flight suits and climbed aboard the spaceship for a countdown dress rehearsal ahead of their planned August 7 liftoff.
NASA managers plan to meet next week to confirm the launch date.
Endeavour's crew, which includes teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, plans to spend seven to 10 days at the space station installing a new structural beam, replacing a steering gyroscope and delivering cargo.

SEARCHING FOR NON-CARBON LIFEFORMS

A HYPOTHETICAL SILICON BASED LIFEFORM

Scientists call for wider search for alien life.
By Carl Zimmer, International Herald Tribune

NEW YORK: A panel of scientists convened by America's leading scientific advisory group says the hunt for extraterrestrial life should be greatly expanded to include what they call "weird life": organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life as we know it.
"The committee's investigation makes clear that life is possible in forms different from those on Earth," the scientists conclude in their report, "The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems," published by the National Research Council.
Other experts hailed the report as an important rethinking of the search for life. "It's going to help us a lot to make sure we go exploring with our eyes wide open," said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program.
Starfish, sequoias, salamanders and the rest of Earth's residents may seem very diverse, but they are surprisingly similar on the molecular scale. All species that scientists have studied need liquid water to survive, for example. Further, they all rely on DNA to carry genetic information, and they all use that information to build proteins from the same set of building blocks, known as amino acids.
NASA has long looked to life on Earth to guide its search for life on other worlds. Planets and moons that have hints of liquid water have been ranked high on the list of potential sites for life-detection missions.
But there is good reason to suspect that other kinds of chemistry could support life as well, the authors of the new report argue. Weird life could differ from life as we know it in small or big ways.
For example, while DNA uses phosphorus in its backbone, it might be possible to build a backbone out of arsenic instead. And life might exist in liquids other than water, perhaps ammonia or methane.

The report, which is posted on the Web site of the National Academies, www.nationalacademies.org, even explores the possibility of life based on silicon, not carbon, though Meyer, who had no role in the work, thinks that astrobiologists should limit their search to carbon-based life forms.
"When we look in the universe," he said, "the only compounds we see with more than six atoms are all carbon chemistry. So there's a hint that looking for carbon chemistry may be a better bet. There we have some idea of what to look for."

The report calls for NASA and the National Science Foundation both to support research into weird life. Chemists need to investigate "the chemical possibilities for what forms life might take," said one member of the committee, Steven Benner, a distinguished fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, in Gainesville, Florida.
Scientists should also search Earth for weird life, the authors maintain. "There's much about Earth life we don't understand," said the panel's chairman, John Baross of the University of Washington.
Benner said there was "good evidence that the life we know on Earth was preceded by a weird form of life." Early Earth life may have been based on RNA, a single-stranded form of DNA. Although DNA-based life may have out-competed earlier forms on the surface of the planet, RNA life may still exist in refuges. One potential hiding place is deep below the ocean floor.
"It's an incredibly primordial world down there," Baross said.
"If you're going to look for remnants of an RNA world, those are the environments you want to go to."
To find weird life, however, scientists will have to build new kinds of detectors. "There's no question that the surveys of life on the planet we've done so far would have missed it," Benner said.
The scientists also said the possibility of weird life should prompt NASA to reorder its future missions. They singled out Saturn's moon Titan as particularly promising.

SEARCHING FOR OTHER LIFE

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR MARS TEST

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

The Aurora program envisages Europeans on Mars.
The European Space Agency (Esa) is seeking volunteers for a simulated human trip to Mars, in which six crew spend 17 months in an isolation tank.
They will live and work in a series of interlocked modules at a research institute in Moscow.
Once the hatches are closed, the crew's only contact with the outside world is a radio link to "Earth" with a realistic delay of many minutes.
It sounds like Big Brother, but there are no plans to televise the test.
The modular "spacecraft" measures some 550 cubic metres (19,250 cubic feet), the equivalent of nine truck containers. It is based at the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems in the Russian capital.
The goal is to gain insight into human behaviour and group dynamics under the kinds of conditions astronauts would experience on a journey to Mars.

BIG COMMITMENT
With the exception of weightlessness and radiation, the crew will experience most other aspects of long-haul space travel, such as cramped conditions, a high workload, lack of privacy, and limited supplies.
The volunteers will be put through a number of scenarios, such as a simulated launch, outward journey of up to 250 days, an excursion on the Martian surface, followed by the return home.
The 500-day duration is close to the minimum estimated timescale needed for a human trip to the Red Planet.
The Earthbound astronauts will have to deal with simulated emergencies and perhaps even real ones.
But, while Esa says it will do nothing that puts the lives of the simulation crew at unnecessary risk, officials running the experiment have made it clear they would need a convincing reason to let someone out of the modules once the experiment had begun.
"The idea behind this experiment is simply to put six people in a very close environment and see how they behave," Bruno Gardini, project manager for Esa's Aurora space exploration programme, told BBC News.

TEAM ETHIC
In all, 12 European volunteers will be needed. They must be aged 25-50, be in good health, have "high motivation" and stand up to 185cm tall. Smokers, or those with other addictions, to alcohol or illicit drugs, for example, will be rejected.
Esa is also looking for a working knowledge of both English and Russian.
"We will do pre-selection, medical tests, psychological tests, etc. But at the end, you really have to see how they react in as close to a real situation as possible on Earth," explained Mr Gardini.
He added that the results would help define the selection criteria for a future Mars mission.
"This is the beginning; it will be a long time before we go to Mars," the Esa official said.
"But this is a field which is difficult to quantify. It's human behaviour, so there's no method. The Russians have done lots of study in the past and we will be sharing some data.

"We have to look at the mix of people; at the end of the day, we want a team."


ROBOTS FIRST
Marc Heppener, of Esa's Science and Application Division, said the crewmembers would get paid 120 euros (158 dollars) a day.
Viktor Baranov, of Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems, said his organisation had received about 150 applications, only 19 of which had come from women.
A precursor 105-day study is scheduled to start by mid-2008, possibly followed by another 105-day study, before the full 520-day project begins in late 2008 or early 2009.
European scientists have been asked to submit proposals for experiments in the areas of psychology, medicine, physiology and mission operations.
Mounting a mission to Mars would face many other hurdles, not least of which would be shielding the crew against the potentially deadly dose of radiation they would receive on the journey.

Esa's Aurora programme has already begun preparations to land a rover - called ExoMars - on the Red Planet. It has the stated aim, however, of trying to get European astronauts to Mars at some time in the future.


THE EXOMARS ROVER