Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) recreated the spacesuit leak that endangered European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano last month, but the root cause of the leak remains undetermined.

As shown in a NASA video released as part of its Space Station Live recap today, water collecting in the helmet is clearly visible.  The suit was powered up — with no one in it — to see if the problem still exists.   It does.  Some of the spacesuit parts will be returned to Earth for further study since engineers have been unable to discover exactly what went wrong.  They know the leak came from the spacesuit’s cooling system, but that’s all.

Parmitano shared the chilling details of what he experienced on July 16 in a blog post last week.  About an hour into a planned 6.5 hour spacewalk, he began feeling water behind his head.  The amount grew and grew until eventually it surrounded his head, impairing his ability to see, hear and speak, and, almost, to breath.  The spacewalk was terminated and he returned to the airlock and was helped out of his suit by crewmates just in time.

Charles Kennel, chair of the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Space Studies Board (SSB), believes that Decadal Surveys are still valuable strategy tools for the space and earth sciences communities despite the challenges of developing and implementing the most recent set.   Kennel’s views are summarized in a new report from the SSB on lessons learned from the Decadal Survey process.

The NRC conducts Decadal Surveys approximately every 10 years laying out priorities for several scientific disciplines for the next 10 years — hence the term “decadal.”   The SSB has led or co-led five Decadal Surveys published over the past several years:  Earth science and applications from space (2007), astronomy and astrophysics (2011), planetary exploration (2011), life and physical sciences in space (2011), and heliophysics (2012). 

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) was the sponsor or co-sponsor of all those studies except life and physical sciences in space (which was sponsored by NASA’s former Exploration Systems Mission Directorate).  The four SMD studies were the subject of an SSB workshop last year assessing what improvements might be made when the next set of surveys is prepared.   A summary of the workshop was published today.   

NRC workshop summaries do not contain findings or recommendations, but this recounting of the 2-day workshop is rich with views of the scientists who were members of the Decadal Survey committees, NASA officials, and members of the international earth and space science communities.   Kennel’s concluding remarks lay out the highlights that he heard, or, as he says, did not hear.  Chief among them was that “Nobody said we shouldn’t have another decadal survey.”  

That being said, Kennel identified several key points that could be useful for future surveys.  Kennel’s observations as summarized in the report include the following:

• Decadal Surveys necessarily take the length of time they do (about two years), but should not “be made complex or elaborate than it already is”;
• the Statement of Task (SoT) for each study must be carefully negotiated between the NRC and the sponsor because the SoT defines the nature and scope of the study — Kennel paraphrased Steven Squyres, chair of the planetary science Decadal Survey, as saying “It’s the Statement of Task, stupid”;
• more international and interagency collaboration before a Decadal Survey begins would be helpful, and while that is an area where NASA must lead, the NRC could encourage NASA to “bring about an enhanced level of collaboration”;
• the language used to describe missions recommended in Decadal Surveys must be chosen carefully to accurately convey the level of detail (or lack thereof) that was available at the time the study took place and assessed by the survey committees using the Cost and Technical Evaluation (CATE) process;
• the CATE process itself must be carefully described “because the CATE estimates are so probabilistic …. that including a description of the uncertainty in cost would better illustrate that the CATE numbers are notional at best, thus conveying cost and risk at the same time”;
• future surveys could “explicitly assign a risk acceptance level” to the recommended missions especially since large missions may demand a higher risk management commitment than smaller missions.

The NRC has published Decadal Surveys in astronomy and astrophysics since 1964.   Surveys for the other space and earth science disciplines began early in this century.  Historically, they are referred to as “bibles” for NASA’s science program since they represent a consensus of the top experts in each of the scientific disciplines and NASA endeavors to execute the missions prioritized in the surveys.   At the beginning of each study, NASA provides an estimate of how much money will be available for new missions during the decade under study. The NRC survey committee sets its priorities based on scientific value and estimated mission cost and risk. 

For this recent round of surveys, however, the actual amount of money available to implement recommended missions is much less than NASA — and therefore the survey committees — expected.  The discrepancy is due either to cost overruns on existing programs that leaves less for new starts or to overall constraints on NASA’s budget.  Thus, the top priority missions recommended in several of the surveys cannot, in fact, be implemented in the near future, leading many in the space and earth science communities exasperated.    Individuals who serve on NRC committees are not compensated, yet they must take time away from their research and personal lives to volunteer for these intense efforts and some question whether it is worthwhile.  In Kennel’s view, the answer clearly is yes.

European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano shares chilling details of what transpired on July 16, 2013  when his spacesuit helmet filled with water during a spacewalk in a blog entry today.   ESA released a video to accompany it with an interview with Luca (as he is commonly called) and his spacewalk partner NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy.

In his riveting blog post, Luca begins by talking about the excitement of exiting the hatch and beginning the spacewalk — or extravehicular activity (EVA).  After completing some of the tasks, he senses water building up behind his head.   Cassidy comes to take a look and it becomes clear this is not just sweat or a leak from the water bottle inside the suit, but something worse.   Ground controllers decide to terminate the EVA and Luca heads back to the airlock while Cassidy must take a different route back because of the location of his tether.   As the amount of water inside Luca’s helmet increases, it sticks to the inside of his visor, limiting his sight, and covers his ears, hampering his ability to hear.   Just then, he must turn his body to avoid an obstacle.  This is what happens next:

“At that moment, as I turn ‘upside down’, two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see — already compromised by the water — completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose — a really awful sensation that I make worse by my vain attempts to move the water by shaking my head.  By now, the upper part of the helmet is full of water and I can’t be sure that the next time I breathe I will fill my lungs with air and not liquid.”

Fortunately, this story has a happy ending, but his account is compelling and underscores just how risky human spaceflight can be — and what the “right stuff” is.

The ESA video intersperses audio and video from the events that day with an interview with Luca, Cassidy and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg (though she does not speak in the segment ESA released).   Cassidy shows the helmet and where the water accumulated.  

As Luca says, he experienced what it was like “to be a goldfish in a fishbowl from the point of view of the goldfish.”

NASA is still trying to determine exactly what went wrong.  It knows that the source of the liquid was the spacesuit’s cooling system, but has not found the root cause.

The dizzying images of swirling clouds in NOAA’s fast-paced video may make you wish you’d taken some Dramamine first, but it is a nifty salute to the GOES-12 weather satellite upon its retirement.

Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 12 (GOES-12) was launched in 2001 and served as the “GOES-East” satellite from April 2003-May 2010.   Thruster control issues then relegated it to a secondary status, but it continued to provide coverage of the Southern Hemisphere. 

NOAA created a video using one image from each day of the satellite’s life to show the weather patterns it observed over North and South America and the adjacent oceans during those years.  (NOAA says the satellite was in service for 3,788 days, but then says there are 3,641 images, so it is not quite exactly one for each day, but it’s close enough.)   Among the major weather events were Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the crippling snowstorm — Snowmageddon — in 2009.

The decommissioning process involves boosting GOES-12 into a higher orbit, using up all its fuel, and disabling its batteries and transmitters.  That way it is out of the way of other geostationary satellites, is unlikely to explode and create space debris, and cannot inadvertently transmit signals that cause interference.

NOAA operates companion systems of weather satellites in polar orbit (circling over the North and South poles) and geostationary orbit (35,800 kilometers above the equator where they maintain a stationary position relative to a point on Earth).   Two geostationary satellites are operational at any one time positioned to observe weather over the Eastern (GOES-East) and Western (GOES-West) United States and adjacent waters.  At least one on-orbit spare also usually is available.  Currently, GOES-13 is in the GOES East position, GOES-15 is GOES-West, and GOES-14 is the on-orbit spare.   Troubles with GOES-13 during the past year caused NOAA to bring GOES-14 temporarily into service twice, but the problems were remedied and GOES-13 is operational now.

After 2010 when GOES-12 was providing data only on South America, NOAA called it “GOES-South,” the first to have that designation.

NOAA is building a new version of the satellites, the GOES-R series, with the first launch expected in 2015.   (The satellites are designated with letters before launch and redesignated with numbers once in orbit.  GOES-R is the first of the new series, which includes three additional satellites, S, T and U).  NOAA’s “fly-out” chart showing when the various GOES satellites are expected to be in service is shown below, current as of April 2013.

NOAA Fly-Out Schedule for GOES Weather Satellites, April 2013.   Source:  NOAA website.