NASA Langley Forecast

HAMPTON, Va., June 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is being issued by NASA:

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Gulf oil spill efforts aided by NASA

NASA has mobilized its remote-sensing assets to help assess the spread and impact of the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at the request of U.S. disaster response agencies. Langley's role has been to take data on the spill from its King Air B-200 research aircraft and the CALIPSO ( Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) satellite. Images, interviews, and links to online information are available.  For more information, contact Mike Finneran at 757-864-6110 or [email protected].

POOL-SIZED WATER BASIN WILL TEST SPACECRAFT WATER LANDINGS

NASA Langley Research Center is getting ready to make a splash. The center will break ground on a $1.7 million Hydro Impact Basin on June 8. Construction of the water basin will begin June 16 and is scheduled to be completed by December. Researchers and engineers will use the basin to conduct full-scale water impact testing, which will help determine the safety of a potential water landing scenario for future space vehicles. A series of water impact testing will begin in 2011. For more information, contact Amy Johnson at 757-864-7022 or [email protected].

'GAME CHANGING' PROPOSAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE SPACEFLIGHT

The President's FY11 budget proposal calls for NASA Langley to manage a new agency-wide effort to foster innovative research and development projects that have the potential to revolutionize spaceflight.  If approved by Congress, the Game Changing Development Program Office will manage a total of $1.5 billion over a five-year period starting Oct. 1.  Research teams from around the agency, to include teams from NASA Langley, will compete for fixed-duration awards.  Winning teams will take a promising new technology and move it rapidly from the laboratory to application.  For more information, contact Chris Rink at 757-864-6786 or [email protected].

'Boom room' almost ready to make some noise.

One of the hurdles to commercial supersonic flight is the annoying sonic boom. NASA Langley is constructing an "interior effects room" complete with two walls of speakers that will be able to reproduce a simulated sonic boom. The idea is to better measure human responses to sonic booms that are experienced indoors and develop a sort of index that would define "acceptable" boom characteristics. For more information, contact Kathy Barnstorff at 757-864-9886 or [email protected].

SUMMER EXPERIENCE WILL MAKE 'VAST' DIFFERENCE FOR VIRGINIA STUDENTS

2010 marks the third year for the Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) summer academy program. From June to July, three week-long academies will be held at NASA Langley Research Center. Over the course of the summer, students from throughout Virginia will get immersed in NASA-related research through interaction with scientists, engineers and technologists. VASTS is a competitive program that allows high school juniors the opportunity to engage in an online NASA-based course that uses a space exploration theme to teach a broad range of math, science, engineering and technology skills. During the school year, 347 scholars completed 10 web-based modules. After successful completion of the course, 144 of those students were selected to participate in the summer academies. VASTS is managed by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium. For more information, contact Amy Johnson at 757-864-7022 or [email protected].

Wind tunnels getting makeovers.

Two of the busiest wind tunnels at NASA Langley are getting a technological facelift this summer. About 14 million dollars in upgrades will improve the capabilities of the 14X22 Subsonic Wind Tunnel and the National Transonic Facility. Both tunnels will be used in research to develop more efficient "green" aircraft. For more information, contact Kathy Barnstorff at 757-864-9886 or [email protected].

SPEAKER SERIES    

Daytime presentations to employees at NASA Langley are held on the first Tuesday of each month at 2 p.m. in the Reid Conference Center. Media are invited to interview speakers at a news conference at 1:15 p.m. prior to the talk. The public is invited to a similar free presentation at 7:30 at Virginia Air and Space Center, Hampton. For more information, contact Chris Rink at 757-864-6786 or [email protected].

June 8 - "In Progress: Kepler Looks for New Earths" by William Borucki, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif.

Borucki will explain and update the Kepler Mission, a NASA effort to determine the frequency of Earth-like planets. Launched in March of 2009, Kepler is designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone of their stars. Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator, hopes to determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.

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SOURCE NASA