NASA News - 04.15.2011

[NASA News - April 15, 2011] Today, space exploration still inspires wonder in a new generation -- sparking passions and pursuits of the unknown. To show their support for spaceflight, more than 6,500 students recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s first human journey into space at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

Students attended the April 8 event from all over the San Francisco/ San Jose Bay Area. They represented 62 schools, the majority Title I schools, and ranged from elementary to high school. Numerous hands-on learning activities were available, including interactive exhibits, workshops and presentations by leading scientists, engineers and technology experts. Games included space trivia and a scavenger hunt.

Additional activities included building and launching rockets, controlling a Mars rover replica, learning how an infrared camera works and making music in an immersive environment.

Students were given tours of real aircraft, including a high-performance, supersonic F-104 Starfighter; a medium-lift, utility H-60 Black Hawk helicopter; and a C-130 Hercules four-engine turboprop from the Calif. Air National Guard.

Guest speakers included NASA Education’s Deputy Administrator Jim Stofan and former astronaut Daniel Barry, who talked about his experience on the STS-105 Space Shuttle Discovery that flew to the International Space Station (ISS) in Aug. 2001. “It’s a kick in the pants,” Barry told a student audience. “We were four months late bringing supplies and equipment to the station. So they were really glad to see us.”

Once an astronaut is aboard the ISS, it’s all about teamwork. They work with other crew members and people on the ground. As part of the daily routine, they keep in shape by running on a treadmill, and do some of the most mundane things, like putting up mufflers to minimize noise, or fixing a squeaky door, he explained. When it is time for a spacewalk, it takes about a day to get everything together. The check list has about 200 items. The food up there is pretty good, too. The astronauts put together a menu before they leave. “When you’re eating in space, you fill up quickly. I lost 8 lbs. my first flight. You learn how to live in space,” he said.

Students were given the opportunity to ask questions after presentations. For Barry, questions included:

“How hard is it to move around in space?”

“It’s like having super powers,” said Barry.

“What does it sound like when taking off?”

“It’s more vibration than sound,” the former astronaut explained.

“Where do you sleep in space?”

“Some people sleep on the ceiling,” he said, pointing upward.

It was a fun-filled day for most students. They were treated to ice cream and given free souvenirs of what may be one of the most memorable days of their lives.
 
 
by Ruth Dasso Marlaire , Ames Research Center
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/features/2011/education_day.html

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NASA Device Inducted Into Space Technology Hall Of Fame

HOUSTON -- A rotating device developed by NASA inventors to grow better living tissue specimens was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame Thursday, April 14. The Space Foundation honored the NASA team who created the device, which promises help for several diseases, during a ceremony at the 27th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Developed in 1986 by a group of NASA engineers and researchers at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the device, known as the bioreactor, enables the growth of tissue, cancer tumors and virus cultures outside the body in space and on Earth. It has many advantages over typical laboratory methods.

Lab-grown cell cultures tend to be small, flat and two-dimensional, unlike normal tissues in the body. However, tissues grown in the bioreactor are larger and three-dimensional, with structural and chemical characteristics similar to normal tissue. The bioreactor has no internal moving parts, which minimizes forces that might damage the delicate cell cultures.

Three of the co-developers of the bioreactor also are being inducted in the Space Technology Hall of Fame: Dr. David Wolf, NASA astronaut, physician and electrical engineer; Tinh Trinh, senior mechanical engineer, Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering Group; and Ray Schwarz, chief engineer and co-founder of Synthecon Inc.

The bioreactor has been used for experiments aboard the space shuttle, the Russian Mir space station and on Earth. Researchers across the United States use this technology to study cancer, stem cells, diabetes, cartilage and nerve growth, and infectious disease.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health used the methods to propagate the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, in artificial lymph node tissue. This research resulted in the ability to study the virus life cycle under controlled conditions outside of the human body.

The bioreactor is a spinoff technology that entered the commercial world when Synthecon licensed it in 1993. Regenetech Inc. licensed 11 patents from Johnson in 2001 to produce three-dimensional tissues in the bioreactor. Regenetech, through a special NASA agreement, provides the technology to researchers pursuing rare disease treatments. In December, 2010, Emerging Healthcare Solutions Inc. acquired a sublicense from Regenetech to use the bioreactor. The bioreactor is manufactured for commercial sale by Synthecon.

A closed tubular cylinder forms the bioreactor's cell culture chamber, which is filled with a liquid medium in which cells grow. The chamber rotates around a horizontal axis, allowing the cells to develop in an environment similar to the free fall of microgravity. Oxygen, required by cells for growth, is fed into the liquid medium through a porous wall in the chamber. The importance of this cell culture technique is that fluid mechanical conditions obtained in microgravity, and emulated on Earth, allow the growth of tissues in the laboratory that cannot be grown any other way.

The 2011 Space Technology Hall of Fame organizational inductees are those that developed the technology and refined it for commercial use: NASA's Johnson Space Center, Regenetech Inc. and Synthecon Inc. All three are based in Houston.

For more information about the Space Technology Hall of Fame inducted technologies, organizations and individuals, visit: http://www.spacetechhalloffame.org

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NASA Releases Status On Open Government Initiatives

WASHINGTON -- On the one year anniversary of NASA's Open Government Initiative, the agency is releasing a detailed assessment on the status of its projects to increase transparency and accountability to the American public.

The assessment marks the agency's progress toward more than 150 milestones on 19 open government projects and three flagship initiatives and is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/open

"We are creating new ways to engage the public in solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation and striving to incorporate open government into every facet of our mission," said Beth Robinson, NASA's chief financial officer and senior accountable official for Open Government.

The report also includes new information about NASA's Freedom of Information Act process, released data sets, and social media use.

"NASA continues to innovate on its approach to open government," said Nick Skytland of NASA's Open Government Initiative. "Our commitment to experimenting with and embracing new participatory ways of collaboration begins with our efforts to infuse open government into the U.S. space program."

NASA's Open Government Plan has been recognized as one of the best in federal government. NASA was among a few agencies recognized with two Leading Practices Awards from the White House for achievement above and beyond the requirements of the Open Government Directive in the categories of "Participation and Collaboration" and "Flagship Initiatives." The White House issued the Open Government Directive calling on executive branch agencies to become more open and countable in December 2009. To learn more, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/open