Space - really the final frontier?

Rick Bowmer / AP file

Barack Obama watches a campaign rally video on a laptop during the presidential primary campaign, on a Feb. 6 flight from Washington to New Orleans.

After a historic presidential election, the tech-savvy campaigners who helped put Barack Obama in the White House say the nation is in for an equally historic four years of tech-savvy governance.

JPL's Dawn spacecraft shut down its ion propulsion system today as scheduled. The spacecraft is now gliding toward a Mars flyby in February of next year.

'Dawn has completed the thrusting it needs to use Mars for a gravity assist to help get us to Vesta,' said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 'Dawn will now coast in its orbit around the sun for the next half a year before we again fire up the ion propulsion system to continue our journey to the asteroid belt.'

Dawn's ion engines may get a short workout next January to provide any final orbital adjustments prior to its encounter with the Red Planet. Ions are also scheduled to fly out of the propulsion system during some systems testing in spring. But mostly, Dawn's three ion engines will remain silent until June, when they will again speed Dawn toward its first appointment, with asteroid Vesta.

Dawn's ion engines are vital to the success of the misson's 8-year, 4.9-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. One of these extremely frugal powerhouses can generate more than 24 hours of thrusting while consuming about .26 kilograms (about 9 ounces) of the spacecraft's xenon fuel supply ' less than the contents of a can of soda. Over their lifetime, Dawn's three ion propulsion engines will fire cumulatively for about 50,000 hours (over five years) ' a record for spacecraft.

Dawn will begin its exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to so much of our solar system's history. By utilizing the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure shape, surface topography, tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, and will seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft itself and how it orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies' masses and gravity fields.

The Dawn mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres is managed and operated by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The University of California, Los Angeles, is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific partners include: Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Space Agency. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

Dawn's launch

- courtesy of DC Agle, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Ca.

Image: 09/27/07: Rising above a cloud-filled horizon, the Delta II rocket carrying the Dawn spacecraft roars into the sky. Liftoff was at 7:34 a.m. EDT from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Dawn is the ninth mission in NASA's Discovery Program. The spacecraft will be the first to orbit two planetary bodies, asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, during a single mission. Vesta and Ceres lie in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is also NASA's first purely scientific mission powered by three solar electric ion propulsion engines. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

10 p.m. CST Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

STS-126 Mission Control Center Status Report #13

Building on Tuesday's spacewalk experience, Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough headed out of the International Space Station's Quest Airlock at 11:58 a.m. CST to continue the process of removing debris around the starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joint (SARJ) and applying lubrication in an effort to eventually restore it to full functionality. The EVA ended at 6:43 p.m. for a total time of six hours and 45 minutes. As the spacewalkers were finishing up their activities, ground controllers noticed that Kimbrough's carbon dioxide levels were increasing, so he made his way back to the airlock a few minutes ahead of Piper.

Piper and Kimbrough began the second spacewalk by relocating two equipment carts in preparation for February's installation of the final pair of solar arrays. Once that task was completed, the two applied lubrication to a balky snare on the end of the station's robotic arm before concentrating on repair of the rotary joint designed to automatically track the Sun as the station circles the Earth. The balance of the spacewalk was focused on replacing four more of the 12 trundle bearing assemblies (TBA). One of them was over-torqued during installation, so Piper installed one of the two back-up TBAs instead.

Mission Specialist Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper works outside the International Space Station during the second spacewalk of the STS-126 mission. Credit: NASA TV

STS-126 mission specialists Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper and Shane Kimbrough perform the second spacewalk of the STS-126 mission. Credit: NASA TV The 116th spacewalk dedicated to station assembly and maintenance was the second of the four planned during space shuttle Endeavour's STS-126 mission. It set the stage for Saturday's third excursion to complete the cleaning and lubricating process. Station flight controllers plan to briefly test the repair early Sunday morning by commanding the solar array into 'auto track' mode to evaluate its performance.

On the 10th anniversary since station construction began with launch of the Zarya Control Module atop a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the station worked inside and outside to increase the capability and performance of systems to eventually support doubling the crew size from three to six.

Friday at 11:10 a.m., shuttle Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and Flight Engineer Steve Bowen will oversee a small reboost of the station's altitude using spare propellant aboard Endeavour.

At 2:05 p.m., both the crews will hold their traditional news conference before reviewing procedures for the third spacewalk scheduled for Saturday afternoon.

Mission Control will wake both crews up at 7:55 a.m. Friday to begin Flight Day 8, and the next mission status report will be issued Friday morning or sooner if events warrant.

STS-126 Mission Coverage

- courtesy of NASA

A public health campaign has saved more than 6 million people from filarial worms, which cause elephantiasis and other grotesque maladies, in just eight years.

Massive donations from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, made the victory possible according to a report  this week in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Both companies provided antiparasitic pills, 1.3 billion of them, for the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.

The disease, caused by nematodes that colonize the lymphatic system, affects at least 120 million people worldwide. As the worms reproduce, they cause ulcers and extreme swelling.

The antiparasitic Albendazole kills the parasites by damaging microtubules in their intestines and brains. Another drug, Ivermectin, can destroy their nervous systems. Each treatment costs less than 10 cents and often has additional benefits, ridding its recipients of infections including lice, roundworm, and hookworm.

Half a billion people will receive the parasite-killing medications this year alone. By 2020, the disease may be history.

Photo: Wuchereria bancrofti worms are among the main causes of lymphatic filariasis. Credit: Centers for Disease Control

In only eight years, a public health campaign has saved more than 6 million people from filarial worms, which cause elephantiasis and other grotesque maladies.

That victory was made possible by massive donations from GlaxoSmithKline and Merck, explained Eric Ottesen, in a report for the current issue of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Both companies provided antiparasitic pills, 1.3 billion of them, for the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis.

The disease affects at least 120 million people worldwide and is caused by nematodes that colonize their lymphatic systems. As those invaders reproduce, they cause ulcers and extreme swelling.

Albendazole kills the parasites by damaging microtubules in their intestines and brains. Ivermectin can destroy their nervous systems. Each treatment costs less than ten cents, and often has additional benefits, ridding its recipients of other infections including lice, roundworm, and hookworm.

In this year alone, half a billion people will receive the parasite-killing medications. By 2020, the disease may be history.

Photo: Wuchereria bancrofti worms are among the main causes of lymphatic filariasis. Credit: Centers for Disease Control