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University students are helping NASA with GeneSat NASA-AMES NEWS RELEASE Posted: November 14, 2006 Dozens of university students are helping NASA to prepare, monitor and analyze the science from a 'nano' satellite scheduled to launch in December. NASA's GeneSat-1 satellite is scheduled to ride aboard an Air Force rocket being launched into Earth orbit on Dec. 11, 2006. The small satellite will carry bacteria that researchers will analyze to determine the effects of space flight on microscopic living things. The 10-pound (4.5-kilogram) satellite will be a 'secondary payload' on an Air Force Minotaur rocket, derived from a Minuteman missile and modified to launch payloads into orbit. The main purpose of the launch from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia is to loft an Air Force TacSat 2 satellite into orbit. NASA's separate GeneSat-1 will carry bacteria inside a miniature laboratory to study how the microbes may change genetically during spaceflight. The micro-laboratory includes sensors and optical systems that can detect proteins and specific genetic activity. The student-operated GeneSat communications system, located in the Stanford foothills, will receive data via radio from the satellite's onboard micro-laboratory after it has completed its observations and tests of the bacteria carried on the spacecraft. This data will be relayed through the Internet to the GeneSat mission operations center at NASA Ames. Santa Clara University students will control the spacecraft from the mission operations center at NASA Ames. The students developed software that will send commands to the satellite, analyze spacecraft health and calibrate biological data. With this program, NASA continues the agency's tradition of investing in the nation's education programs. The program directly ties into the agency's major education goal of strengthening NASA and the nation's future workforce. Through this and the agency's other college and university programs, NASA will identify and develop the critical skills and capabilities needed to achieve the Vision for Space Exploration. |
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Some of the initial pictures and data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter since the craft entered its mapping orbit around the Red Planet are presented in this news briefing held October 16 from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The three-man Expedition 14 crew of the International Space Station complete a short trip, flying their Soyuz capsule to another docking port in preparation for receiving a resupply ship.
Space shuttle Discovery's STS-39 flight, launched in April 1991, served as a research mission for the U.S. Department of Defense. An instrument-laden spacecraft for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was released to watch Discovery perform countless rocket firings and maneuvers, as well as canisters releasing clouds of gas. The crew tells the story of the mission in this post-flight film presentation.
Seeking to study explosive forces across the universe, the Gamma Ray Observatory was launched aboard shuttle Atlantis in April 1991. But when the craft's communications antenna failed to unfold, spacewalking astronauts ventured outside the shuttle to save the day. The rescue EVA was followed by a planned spacewalk to test new equipment and techniques. The crew of STS-37 narrate this post-flight mission film.