Internal NASA Emails Reveal Atlantis Safety Debate, Aviation Week

"Internal NASA emails from the director of Shuttle Safety at the Johnson Space Center and the Shuttle Program Manager show how they struggled with the potential risk to astronauts' lives in assessing how to proceed with the launch of Atlantis in the wake of engine cutoff (ECO) sensor malfunctions. Aviation Week & Space Technology obtained exclusive copies of these emails, which are reproduced largely in full here on AviationWeek.com to retain the context intended by their authors."

Editor's note: Last week I began to receive mutliple reports from NASA sources that the Constellation program has baselined a water landing for the Orion spacecraft. After multiple requests, NASA ESMD PAO replied to me a few moments ago.

From ESMD PAO's Melissa Motichek: "I can tell you that there has not been a final decision on the nominal landing mode (land vs water). The point of departure architecture assumes a nominal water landing to begin the analysis cycle. We will re-address this issue as analysis of contingency water and land landing progresses."

To which I replied: "You have simply confused me further. The "point of departure architecture" used to call for a land landing. Now you say it is a water landing - yet you say that the final decision has not been made."

In August 2007 both Doug Cooke and Doc Horowitz told me that this decision had not been made (contrary to other reports) and that studies were still underway.

It is quite obvious that ESMD PAO (and therefore ESMD) is incapable of making simple 'yes' or 'no' answers to simple questions.

Let me try this again: has NASA decided to land Orion spacecraft in the water as its basic plan of flight operations?

Editor's update: A NASA Watch reader noted that the 3 Dec Space News quotes Jeff Hanley as follows:

"Q. How did Orion manage to lose the weight?

A. In their recent weight scrub effort, the Orion team settled on a targeted water-based landing off the California coast as the nominal landing mode, which the program has accepted."

This really has me perplexed. Jeff Hanley says it that Orion is now landing in water yet ESMD PAO at NASA HQ (who says only what their management tells them to say) informs me that no decision has been made. Small wonder people have their doubts about ESMD and their spacecraft designs. One hand clearly does not know what the other is doing - or saying.

Nearly , active-duty personnel and reservists who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Afghanistan’s Operation Enduring Freedom have been eligible for VA health care since healthhealth. More than health, have sought it out so far, the Congressional Budget Office reported in October. While this represents only a small fraction of the nearly million veterans from all conflicts who are enrolled, the impact of veterans from today’s wars on the system is great.

Thanks to recent advances in battlefield health, more servicemen and women are surviving severe injuries, CBO said. But they require more costly medical care when they return. The rapid influx of new enrollees has helped strain a system that already was under pressure from caring for the veterans of yesterday’s wars. In healthhealth, fewer than health million veterans received VA health services. That number had increased to health million last year.

Many of the resulting access problems start at the very beginning of the enrollment process, said Donna E. Shalala, PhD, president of the University of Miami and former Dept. of Health and Human Services secretary. She co-chaired a presidential commission on care for America’s “wounded warriors” that convened earlier this year after news reports exposed substandard conditions and a mass of red tape at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Although the Dept. of Defense and VA need to work together to foster a patient-centered continuum of care for each veteran, the commission found evidence that returning personnel were not experiencing a smooth transition from military health care to the veterans system, Dr. Shalala said.There are nearly million veterans in the VA system.

Without designated care coordinators to plan the best treatment path for new patients, an untold number ended up lost.

In addition, injured combatants must go through two antiquated disability assessments — one by the military and one by the VA — to determine what treatment options are available. This means that many are forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops that might not even get them to the right place, Dr. Shalala said.

“For veterans’ families to give up everything just to coordinate this care themselves is fundamentally unfair,” she said. “The process is too old-fashioned. It has nothing to do with modern health, and we ought to be embarrassed.”

The Bush administration scrambled to correct several problems identified in the commission’s July report. The Defense Dept. and VA in October agreed on an initial plan to place at least health care coordinators at four military medical sites that often serve as the first stop for wounded veterans. The Army also announced in October the formation of “warrior transition units” consisting of primary care physicians, nurse case managers and mental health professionals that would serve a similar purpose.
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For veterans who make it through the VA’s bureaucratic gauntlet, the care they need might not be immediately accessible or available.

The department has more than healthhealth hospitals and nearly outpatient clinics. While the number of facilities has increased in recent years, it is not nearly enough to provide VA services everywhere in the country. Many patients in rural or remote areas must travel hundreds of miles to reach the nearest department facility — an impossible prospect for many.The VA has more than healthhealth hospitals and nearly outpatient clinics.

Jeffrey Scavron, MD, a former Navy doctor who practices at a community health center in Springfield, Mass., has seen this problem firsthand. Veterans in his area can get basic services at the Northampton VA Medical Center in nearby Leeds, Mass., but often must travel to Boston or Connecticut if they need to see certain types of specialists through the system. Some simply cannot make the trip and go without the care rather than pay for it, he said.

When veterans decide to stick with the VA, the system does not always respond quickly. Advocacy groups have complained to lawmakers that some enrollees seeking appointments, non-emergency surgeries or other medical care have been placed on waiting lists when facilities have been unable to meet demand.

In recent years, Spokane (Wash.) VA Medical Center implemented waiting lists when lean federal budgets forced it to cut back on services, said Joseph M. Manley, the center’s former director. At one point, more than health, veterans were waiting for more than a year just to receive their initial medical appointments.

The VA strives to see all patients within health days of when they call for an appointment. Out of the roughly health million appointments processed in a year, about health million exceed the health-day threshold, said Michael J. Kussman, MD, the VA’s health under secretary. While this leaves room for improvement, the department is proud of its nearly % record, especially because these appointments are not for urgent or emergent medical situations, he said. “I’m not aware of people being hurt in any way by some of the delays.”

The VA’s record is disputed by the department’s inspector general, who in September released an audit that found the VA analysis likely understated wait times.
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Future Human Spaceflight - Democratic Candidate Launches a Position as Opponents Orbit From a Safe Distance, Washington Post

"The major presidential candidates pummel each other daily on issues ranging from the Iraq war to health care. But when it comes to President Bush's ambitious initiative to send humans back to the moon and on to Mars, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is all but alone in staking out a formal position -- and it's one that lends support to key aspects of the president's effort.

She initially outlined the need for a "robust" human spaceflight program last month during a Washington speech on science policy, despite being broadly critical of the Bush administration's record on scientific issues."

News

'Hot chip' endures extreme temperatures

SYDNEY: NASA engineers have created a functioning electronic chip that can withstand more than 1,700 hours at 500 °C. The durable circuitry may have applications in jet engines and high endurance space probes.

Existing heat-resistant chips can only survive such heat for a few hours without breaking down. The new device, created by experts at the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA's Glenn Research Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, represents a 100-fold increase on previous achievements.

Proof of principle

The current chip is relatively simple 'differential amplifier circuit' consisting of just two transistors and three resistors integrated over less than half a square millimetre, but it represents proof of principle said team member Phil Neudeck.

"The silicon-based processor integrated circuit chip you have inside your PC probably has over a million transistors in it, probably spread over a few square centimetres, but not a single one of the PC chip transistors works at 500 °C," Neudeck told Cosmos Online.

Existing silicon chips, attached to electronic sensors and controls, are already key to the high performance of modern jet and car engines, but these cease to function over temperatures of around 200 °C. The experts argue that the new chip, made from silicon carbide (SiC) rather than conventional silicon, could prove to a big advance in the electronics of devices that require long-lasting circuits in unusually hot environments.

"Silicon's electrical properties transform away from 'semiconductor' towards 'conductor' – which precludes transistor integrated circuit operation, and there are chemical reactions at 400 to 500 °C that damages silicon transistor operation as well," said Neudeck. "So we are developing durable silicon carbide integrated circuit technology to go where the silicon can't function."

Applications on Venus

The researchers envisage that the chip will have uses right inside the engines of jet planes – but it could also open up new avenues of space research.

"It is very relevant to robotic exploration of the hot environment of the inner Solar System," said Neudeck. "SiC integrated circuitry that could operate un-cooled for months or years on Venus's scorching 460 °C surface should enable greatly prolonged science return compared to previously-considered mission approaches that rely on cooling less-durable silicon electronics."

Russia's Venera 9 and Venera 10 probes deployed landers, which transmitted data and images from the planet's surface, but neither were able to continue functioning for much longer than an hour in the extreme conditions.

The research was presented last month at the 2007 International Conference on Silicon Carbide and Related Materials held in Otsu, Japan.

News

Distant sun has system of five planets

Vanguard Approaches Half A Century In Space, SpaceRef

Editor's note: I received this note the other day from someone at the NASA Alumni League: "Calling all Vanguardians: On March 17, 2008, the Vanguard One satellite, the oldest object in space from Planet Earth, will complete its 50th year in Earth orbit. A small group of former NRL and NASA folks has been in communication, and a number of government agencies have been asked to commemorate the event."

NASA ISS On-Orbit Status 3 November 2007

"Day 149 for Clayton Anderson. Flight Day 12 for STS-120/10A; Day 10 of Joint Ops. "It's been a great day!" (MS1 Scott Parazynski).....and thank God for the Canadian MSS!"

Crews Complete Fourth Spacewalk Outside of International Space Station

"The crews completed the fourth spacewalk of the mission at 1:22 p.m. EDT. The main objective of the spacewalk was the repair of a torn solar array. After successfully repairing the array, the crews fully deployed it."

Additional ISS/Shuttle News