Astronaut Marsha Ivins Leaves NASA

Michael Curie

Headquarters, Washington

 

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters

Johnson Space Center, Houston

HOUSTON -- NASA astronaut Marsha Ivins, a veteran of five spaceflights, has retired from the agency.

"Marsha's incredible depth of mission experience and technical expertise has been a tremendous asset to this office," said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We have relied on her expertise for years in many diverse areas, including but not limited to crew provisions, optimal hardware packing, human ratings development, vehicle habitability and orbiter preflight vehicle checks. Her expertise and dedication to NASA's mission will be sorely missed."

Ivins joined NASA in 1974 as an engineer. She worked on space shuttle displays, controls, man-machine engineering and the development of the orbiter's head-up display. She served in Johnson's aircraft operations as a flight engineer for the Shuttle Training Aircraft and copilot of the Gulfstream I.

Ivins was selected as an astronaut in 1984. She spent more than 1,300 hours in space during five shuttle flights: STS-32 in 1990, STS-46 in 1992, STS-62 in 1994, STS-81 in 1997 and STS-98 in 2001.

Ivins most recently worked within the Astronaut Office supporting the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Constellation Programs.

For Ivins' complete astronaut biographical information, visit http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ivins.html.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov.

- end -

Venus Rising

This hemispheric view of Venus was created using more than a decade of radar investigations culminating in the 1990-1994 Magellan mission, and is centered on the planet's North Pole. The Magellan spacecraft imaged more than 98 percent of the planet Venus and a mosaic of the Magellan images (most with illumination from the west) forms the image base. Gaps in the Magellan coverage were filled with images from the Earth-based Arecibo radar in a region centered roughly on 0 degree latitude and longitude, and with a neutral tone elsewhere (primarily near the south pole). This composite image was processed to improve contrast and to emphasize small features, and was color-coded to represent elevation. Gaps in the elevation data from the Magellan radar altimeter were filled with altimetry from the Venera spacecraft and the Pioneer Venus missions.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

This article was sponsored by Forensic Science Books.

NASA Airborne Observatory’s Past Unearthed

Fifteen years after its final flight, veterans of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, or KAO, gathered at NASA's Ames Research Center Nov. 10, 2010 to witness the opening of a time capsule.

The KAO is a highly modified Lockheed C-141A cargo transport fitted with a 36-inch telescope. The observatory was based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., for operations that began in 1974 and ended in 1995.

Wendy Dolci, associate director for operations at NASA Ames' Astrobiology Institute, served as mission director when the time capsule was assembled in 1995. Dolci wasn't certain what the group would find upon the capsule's opening, but she did remember a pair of mascots: a stuffed kiwi and a stuffed koala, given by friends from New Zealand and Australia. The koala was a constant companion of crewmembers, flying four million miles on the airborne observatory.

As the crowd waited, anticipation built and when the capsule was finally unlatched, it revealed an intact koala and kiwi, along with the rest of the items, which had been stored in an ice chest. A cricket bat signed by friends from New Zealand also was among the memorabilia.

Results from observations made with the KAO, including images of the comet Halley and super nova SN87A, were rediscovered. Diane Wooden, an Ames astrophysicist, was on board in April 1986 when those images were taken and recalled "how much fun it was." She flew on KAO missions for 16 of the 22 years the aircraft was in operation.

More practical items included a flight map from the final flight, meeting minutes, a guest book and a package of Lipton's Cup of Soup – "a typical Kuiper gourmet meal," recalled one of the former crewmembers.

Items of a less scientific nature included the lyrics to "The Kuiper Blues," along with a harmonica and a poem written by Tom Connors, a former mechanical engineer.

"We had a rich culture with the KAO," quipped Dolci.

On a humorous note, there was a penny-filled jar labeled, "Save the KAO Fund;" a "smile" lipstick sticker, for "when everything's wrong and you need to be pleasant;" and an alleged witch-doctor bone. The artifact had been acquired by KAO scientist Jim Elliot in Maseru Lesotho, South Africa, in 1971, and was used by Elliot and fellow scientists Ted Dunham and their collaborators to "ward off evil occultation spirits."

One item that KAO veterans recommended be passed on to KAO's successor, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, crew was a talisman representing "the blame." Consisting of a simple feather bearing a message, it was bequeathed to SOFIA staff with the instructions that it "is to be used during times when things have gone wrong, awry, amok (yes, this will happen on SOFIA, too) and blame is being randomly cast about. Just take the blame and pin it on someone (it seems to work best when it's pinned on the person who is least to blame). Then, for the rest of the day, that person is blamed for everything." The blame talisman was one example of how scientists working long hours under pressure vented steam with humor.

That item was among several that Dolci brought to the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., to present to SOFIA program staff. Just after the crew briefing for the SOFIA's first dedicated science flight on Nov. 30, 2010, Dolci presented SOFIA program manager Bob Meyer with the kiwi and koala. Meyer passed the items along to Nancy McKown of the Universities Space Research Association, mission manager for the first series of SOFIA's science flights, to be carried on board the airborne observatory. The mascots, Meyer said, "need to go flying."

The tiny stuffed mascots brought some of the KAO's charm to SOFIA and, scientists hope, some KAO karma that will enable the SOFIA program to carry on the important and successful work of its predecessor.

The SOFIA team is off to a good start, with the help of the artifacts inherited from the KAO, three short science 1-series flights were completed Dec. 8, 2010, marking "a significant milestone in SOFIA's development and ability to conduct peer-reviewed science observations," said Meyer.

Cathy Weselby

NASA Ames Research Center

Beth Hagenauer

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

Uptick in Hospital-based C difficile Infections in Children Raising Concerns

Clostridium difficile is a bacterium commonly found in the intestinal tract. (Image: CDC)

This blog post was shared by The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences is the nation’s federal health sciences university.

Hospitalized children in the United States are becoming infected with the bacteria Clostridium difficile more frequently and children who acquire the infection are more likely to die or require surgery, according to researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The findings, which will appear in the May print issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, are available online.

C difficile, which can colonize the gastrointestinal tract and lead to infection, may show no symptoms in infected patients, while others develop diarrhea, toxic megacolon (extreme inflammation and distention of the large intestine), perforated bowels or other potentially fatal complications. “In recent years, the incidence of C difficile infection, number of hospitalizations, associated deaths and severity in adults have been increasing,” the authors write.

According to study lead author Air Force Major (Dr.) Cade Nylund, an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the USU and pediatric gastroenterologist at the National Capital Consortium pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Walter Reed Army and National Navy Medical Centers, “When pediatric patients are finally hospitalized they tend to be more complex and more susceptible to infections like C difficile. At the same time, the patients, especially hospitalized children, are less able to fend off the serious effects of these infections, making them more likely to die.”

Dr. Nylund performed this research during his fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at Cincinnati Children’s in collaboration with Drs. Anthony Goudie, Jose Garza, Gerry Fairbrother, and Mitchell Cohen. Nylund adds that a strain of C difficile found in hospitals, known as the North American Pulse Field type 1 (NAP1), may be a partially to blame for the increasing trend of C difficile infections in children. “There may also be increasing awareness among health care providers, leading to increased testing in symptomatic patients,” said Nylund.

Based on national hospital discharge data from 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006 collected by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the researchers reviewed records representative of more than 10.5 million patients, of whom 21,274 (0.2 percent) had C difficile. They found the number of cases increased by 15 percent each year, from 3,565 in 1997 to 7,779 in 2006. Additionally, children with C difficile infection had an increased risk of death or colectomy (surgery to remove all of part of the colon), longer hospital stays and higher hospitalization charges.

Some children appeared more likely to become infected, including those who had other co-occurring diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, organ transplant, or cancer. The risk of infection was also higher among those who were white, lived in the West or in urban areas, or had private insurance. “We don’t know exactly why we see these populations have an increased risk.

However, it likely has much to do with antibiotic exposure, which is a major risk factor for development of C difficile,” Nylund said. “The population-based data in our study provide additional evidence that C difficile infection cases have a significant effect on the pediatric population. Our study supports previous reports that C difficile infection is increasing among hospitalized children and provides a background for understanding changing trends and risk factors of C difficile infection in children. Increasing awareness of these risk factors and of an upward trend in hospitalized children with C difficile infection is the first step in controlling this infection.”

USU is the nation’s federal health sciences university. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who are being educated to deal with wartime casualties, emerging infectious diseases and other public health emergencies. Of the university’s more than 4,500 physician alumni, the vast majority are supporting operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, offering their leadership and expertise. For more

information, visit http://www.usuhs.mil/.

Stringer Work Begins Today

Science technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will begin modifications to 34 support beams, called stringers, on space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank today. Crews will fit pieces of metal called radius blocks over the tops of the stringers located at the external tank’s thrust panel area to increase the structural support of the stringers. The thrust panel areas are located at the attachment points between the tank and the solid rocket boosters, which see the most stress during the flight into orbit. The work is expected to take about a week. ‪

‪Teams also are scanning all the tank’s stringers using a backscatter device, which bounces radiation off the tank allowing engineers to see below the foam insulation. Engineers at various NASA centers continue to analyze testing and imaging data. Managers will meet again Thursday to determine whether radius block modifications are needed on the remaining stringers. ‪

Repairs to four cracks on three stringers on the opposite side of the tank from Discovery that were discovered on Dec. 29 began Monday and are expected to be completed mid-week. The repairs are similar to repairs made on cracks found on two stringers after Discovery's Nov. 5 launch attempt.

‪The next available launch date for Discovery's STS-133 mission to the International Space Station remains Feb. 3 at the opening of a window that extends through Feb. 10.

Before the Winter

This mosaic of images shows the soil in front of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit after a series of short backward drives during attempts to extricate the rover from a sand trap in January and early February 2010. It is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see. Bright-toned soil was freshly exposed by the rover's left-front wheel during the drives and can be seen with a "sand wave" shaping that resulted from the unseen wheel's action.

Spirit's panoramic camera took the component images during the period from Feb. 2-16, 2010, or sols 2,163-2,177; a sol is one Martian day. The turret at the end of the rover's arm appears in two places because of movement during that period.

Insets in the upper left and lower right corners of the frame show magnified views of the nearby inscribed rectangles within the mosaic. The patch of ground within each rectangle is about 25 centimeters (10 inches) across. The top inset and upper portion of the mosaic include targets within soil layers exposed by the action of Spirit's wheels in April 2009 and examined in detail with instruments on Spirit's arm during the five subsequent months. The investigations determined that, under a thin covering of windblown sand and dust, relatively insoluble minerals are concentrated near the surface and more-soluble ferric sulfates have higher concentrations below that layer. This pattern suggests water has moved downward through the soil, dissolving and carrying the ferric sulfates.

The brightness and color of the freshly disturbed soil seen in the center area of the mosaic indicates the this formerly hidden material is sulfate-rich. Before Spirit drove into this patch, the surface looked like the undisturbed ground highlighted in the lower-right inset. Flecks of red material in the surface layer resemble the appearance of the surface layer at other locations where Spirit's wheels have exposed high-sulfate, bright soils.

On Jan. 4, 2004, Spirit--the first of two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers--landed on the Red Planet for what was to be a 90-day mission. Since sol 2,210 (March 22, 2010), Spirit has been silent, and the project's scientists continue to listen for Spirit with the Deep Space Network and Mars Odyssey orbiter.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Modifications to External Tank Stringers to Begin Tuesday

Science Technicians at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida will begin modifications to 34 support beams, called stringers, on space shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank on Tuesday. Crews will fit pieces of metal, called radius blocks, over the tops of the stringers located at the external tank’s thrust panel area to increase the structural support of the stringers. The thrust panel areas are located at the attachment points between the tank and the solid rocket boosters, which see the most stress during the flight into orbit. The work is expected to take approximately one week. Teams currently are performing scans on all of the tank’s stringers using a backscatter device, which bounces radiation off the tank allowing engineers to see below the foam insulation.

Engineers at various NASA centers continue to analyze testing and imaging data. Managers will meet again Thursday to determine whether radius block modifications are needed on the remaining stringers. Repairs to four cracks on three stringers on the opposite side of the tank from Discovery that were discovered on Dec. 29 began Monday and are expected to be completed mid-week. The repairs are similar to repairs made on cracks found on two stringers after Discovery's Nov. 5 launch attempt. The next available launch date for Discovery's STS-133 mission to the International Space Station remains Feb. 3 at the opening of a window that extends through Feb. 10.