Kepler Will Help Develop Future Planet-Finding Spacecraft. In his column for Space.com (1/14) Leonard David wrote on the Kepler space telescope, due to be launched in March. The telescope "harness[es] a trio of key capabilities: pointing accuracy, a very large field of view and low-noise electronics to maximize the ability to read data from the sensitive detection system." Once launched and making measurements, Kepler "rolls every 30 days to align a fixed high-gain antenna to download that month's gathered readings to NASA's Deep Space Network. Kepler also carries out a 90-degree roll every 90 days to keep its solar panels always pointed at the sun, [Ball Aerospace program manager John] Troeltzsch noted." Ball Aerospace developed the telescope. Principle investigator Bill Borucki of the Ames Research Center "said Kepler is a step forward, offering...capability that will support future decision-making about building more powerful spacecraft to home in on candidate worlds capable of sustaining life."

NASA Evaluating Use Of Suborbital Spacecraft. Discovery News (1/14, Klotz) reported, "There's a new customer lining up for rides aboard commercial spaceships being designed to ferry passengers into suborbital space -- NASA." NASA is interested in what science can be done using suborbital flights and is now "reviewing 20 proposals from scientists interested in participating in the program. The agency has about $400,000 to fund up to eight study grants, said Jonathan Rall, with NASA's Planetary Sciences division." According to project manager Lisa Chu-Thielbar of the Ames Research Center, suborbital flights would be cheaper than the typical sounding rocket, which are also potentially not recoverable. "In addition to studies of Earth's atmosphere, scientists have proposed particle physics experiments, a genetics test, investigations to monitor the sun, an astrophysical experiment related to the theory of relativity, and several materials science exposure runs, NASA said." A decision on which experiments to fund is expected in March.

Students Work At Mars Desert Research Station. Popular Science (1/5, Schmidt) discussed the Mars Desert Research Station, "a simulated Mars habitat that serves as a testbed for field operations studies in preparation for future human missions to Mars" where from "December 27 to January 2, six college students served as the MDRS crew, as participants in NASA's Spaceward Bound program." The program is an "educational program whose goal is to train the next generation of space explorers by having students and teachers participate in the exploration of scientifically interesting but remote and extreme environments."

New and Noteworthy:

At left, Division Scientist Darlene Lim sampling water from a lake on Devon Island, Nunavut. The myriad of lakes and ponds in the Canadian High Arctic are important to understanding past, present and future environmental conditions. These aquatic systems are under-going ecological change in response to recent global warming. Follow this link to see images Darlene took in the Canadian High Arctic.

Nathalie Cabrol reports on her exciting and successful field work from the mountains in South America. 'We stayed 5 days and 4 nights in the mountain mostly around 5,916 m. While this was physically tough, the reward was immense as we successfully completed all of our science, including our two planned scuba dives in the summit lake of the volcano....' Click here to read her letter, or visit the highlakes web page.

Louis Allamandola recently won three great honors. He was elected a fellow by two prestigious science organizations, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He was also recognized with The Presidential Rank Award, one of the highest honors a civilian can receive. He is being recognised for 'seminal contributions in astrochemistry that have forever revolutionized our understanding of interstellar molecules, interstellar ices, and the chemical physics of the interstellar medium.' Read more about Dr. Allamandola and why he is famous by following this link.

At the latest meeting of the Division of Planetary Science (DPS) in Pasadena our own Dale Cruikshank was awarded the highly prestigious Gerard P. Kuiper Prize in recognition of his pioneering work in the application of infrared spectroscopy to solar system bodies, his development of laboratory techniques that have become tools for interpreting observations, and his leadership in the design of instruments for remote sensing observations from deep space planetary exploration probes.

The image at left of microbial mats taken by division scientist Lee Bebout from their Baja Mexico Field site was recently the cover shot for the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. this image is associated with the article 'Unexpected Diversity and Complexity of the Guerrero Negro Hypersaline Microbial Mat' co-authored by division scientist Brad M. Bebout. For more information go to the AEM website.

The Space Science and Astrobiology Division at NASA Ames Research Center conducts research and mission-related activities that are structured around the study of the origins and evolution of stars, the interstellar medium, planetary systems, and life on Earth and (perhaps) elsewhere. These address some of the most fundamental questions pursued by science, involving our place in the universe; questions that have been asked by humans since the dawn of time.

Space Science Division personnel participate in a variety of major missions. Division scientists are/were Investigators, Team Members, or Interdisciplinary Scientists on Pioneer, Voyager, Viking, Galileo, and the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the Infrared Space Observatory, Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor and Stardust. Our scientists are currently involved with the Cassini mission currently orbiting Saturn, the CRISM and HiRISE instruments on MRO, currently orbiting Mars. Our division is as a group one of the largest users of the Spitzer Space Telescope - in fact we just got at least a half dozen cycle three proposals funded, go team! Division scientists are also involved in development of and experiments for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), planetary detection with Kepler, Phoenix Mars Scout mission, Next Generation (now James Webb) Space Telescope (JWST) and Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). Our scientists also participate on non-NASA missions such as the Hayabusa mission and ESA missions such as Mars Express.

Ames is recognized as a world leader in astrobiology, astronomy (especially in the infrared), molecular astrophysics, and planetary science. Our scientists model and study the life cycle of stars, the interstellar medium, planetary atmospheres, planetary geology, and are engaged in the search for extrasolar planets. In pursuing basic research in these areas, scientists in the Space Science Division perform pioneering basic research to further fundamental knowledge and developing technology for future space missions. To accomplish this objective the Division has assembled a multidisciplinary team of scientists including astronomers, astrophysicists, chemists, microbiologists, physicists, and planetary scientists.

Major elements of the Space Science Division's program include the study of the interstellar gas and dust that form the raw material for stars, planets, and life; the processes of star and planet formation; the evolution of planets and their atmospheres; the origin of life and its early evolution on the Earth; the search for past or present life throughout the solar system with emphasis on Mars; and advanced technologies for robotic and human exploration of space.