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JDEM is one of three Einstein Probe missions spelled out in NASA’s Beyond Einstein Roadmap, with a targeted total life cycle cost cap of ~$600M (FY08$) excluding launch vehicle cost. This cost cap includes NASA, DOE, and any other domestic or international contributions.

Following the Announcement of Opportunity in late 2008, the science investigation will be selected in 2009, with a project start that same year. The launch of JDEM is planned for 2014-2015, and a nominal science operations lifetime of three years is assumed, although not required.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA's Kennedy Space Center has awarded a contract to Hensel Phelps of Orlando, Fla., for the construction of the Ares I mobile launcher for the Constellation Program. Ares I is the rocket that will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle, its crew and cargo to low Earth orbit. The contract includes an option for an additional Ares I mobile launcher. It is a firm fixed-price contract with a value of $263,735,000, if all options are exercised.

The mobile launcher will support the Ares I and the vehicle's associated ground support equipment. It will be used in the assembly, testing and servicing of the Ares I at existing Kennedy facilities. The mobile launcher will transport the Ares I rocket to the launch pad and provide ground support for launches. The mobile launcher consists of the main support structure that comprises the base, tower and facility ground support systems, which include power, communications, conditioned air, water for cooling, wash-down, and ignition over-pressure protection.

Hensel Phelps will supply all labor, materials and equipment necessary for construction of the Ares I mobile launcher. Ground support equipment, such as umbilicals, propellant and gases, instrumentation, controls and communications, necessary to support the Ares I rocket will be provided and installed under a separate contract or contracts.

The tower of the mobile launcher will have multiple platforms for personnel access and will be approximately 390 feet tall. Construction will take place at the mobile launcher park site area located north of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at the space center in Florida.

10 April 2008   ESA PR 21-2008. With ESA astronauts working in the Columbus laboratory onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the first of ESA’s new ATV cargo ships having delivered fresh supplies to the station, ESA’s human spaceflight activities have entered a new era. It is now time for ESA to seek out new talent to bolster its Astronaut Corps for future manned missions to the ISS, the Moon and beyond.

We completed testing with the Deep Space Network last week, and this week we are testing with our primary ground station, White Sands 1. These tests ensure that we can properly communicate with our spacecraft during flight. During the evening shifts, the blanket technicians have been designing the thermal blankets that will protect the orbiter from the temperature extremes in lunar orbit.

During the LOLA safe-to-mate electrical tests, we discovered a problem with the signal levels on the instrument's data interface. The LOLA team tracked down the problem to a polarity reversal on a transformer. The circuit is already corrected, and we are running the electronics box through some workmanship testing to make sure everything is OK. Most of the instrument, including the laser, remained on the spacecraft. We should have the entire instrument running again next week.

The solar array gimbal will be out of its thermal vacuum testing tomorrow, and it will meet up with the solar panels for some integrated testing. The High-Gain Antenna System blankets are installed. We are working through some interference issues with the blankets - we want to make sure that everything moves freely. The HGAS should be ready for thermal vacuum testing next week. LROC and Mini-RF are both nearly finished with their thermal vacuum testing.

by Patrick Woida

May 02, 2008 - We have now completed our ORT10 dress rehearsal. It’s been a long road getting from taking a few days to just get through one day on Mars a year ago to being able to execute day by day the activities we need to do everyday for the mission. Are we 100% ready? I hope not! We are well prepared, I’m told by those with many missions under their belts we’re the best prepared team they’ve ever seen. But if we knew everything that would happen, knew all the answers, there wouldn’t be much point in going. This is a mission of discovery, and I hope no matter how prepared we are that Mars has a few surprises in store. Will it be hard? You can be sure of that! But to evoke Kennedy, “…we don’t go because it’s easy; we go because it’s hard…”

The exercise is very good to train the robot how to work on Mars, and important for the team to learn how to work with that robot millions of miles away. We learn something new every time we shake out our tools, procedures, and personnel. Frankly I needed the ORT to pacify me. I’m getting so impatient to reach Mars. The chance to at least run a few simulated sols is a great way to channel my energy for at least a few days.  Although it went well, a trip to Mars is NEVER a slam dunk, no matter how prepared you are. I find Mars hangs at that point where our reach is about equal to our grasp. Weeks like this one does build confidence for myself and my teammates. We probably never can be ready enough, but from my perspective, we are up to the challenge.

I’m sure Mars doesn’t care what plans we’ve made, he will lead us down a different road than we’ve spent these months rehearsing. That won’t hurt us, it will test us. We have the abilities, we have the passion, we have the means.With only weeks to go, the time is nearly here to unleash this band of explorers to a new frontier.

by Mark Lemmon

May 05, 2008 - Another week, another project test. Last week we held ORT 10 in Tucson, Pasadena, and Denver. ORT 10 is the last Operational Readiness Test (unless you count “ORT 11,” which starts on Mars in 19 sols). For ORT 10, we simulated Approach, Entry, Descent and Landing (AEDL), for which I was just a spectator. Then we continued on to a dress rehearsal of surface operations from landing through the evening of sol 2. This was a chance to test our response to many of the lessons learned earlier. I was extremely happy with the results. We’re still learning and still working to get better, but we did a very good job getting the information we needed on the ground quickly.

Sol 0 was nominal. (That’s the understated NASA way of saying we survived the “7 minutes of terror” of EDL, and have a healthy spacecraft in Mars.) We got all of the images taken on sol 0 during the first downlink after landing. There was still plenty of data from EDL stored, for not only the sol 1 AM downlink but for the next few AM downlinks). From an imaging point of view, it was even better than real flight operations will be, with no missing parts of images whatsoever.

There was one exception to getting at all the information quickly. After sol 1, we did not have confidence in the resolution of conflicting information about the robotic arm temperatures. (This was all made up -- the conflicting temperatures hovered around -25 C…in Tucson…in May…) The decision was to gather more information before using the robotic arm motors. So, on sol 2 we took more pictures and did some MECA activity that had been scheduled for a few sols in the future. After we got the sol 2 data, we were go to use the RA, and we planned sol 3 accordingly before ending the ORT.

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by Jonathan Paul

Discovery Channel Canada plans to capture the next milestone in exploration of the Red Planet on May 25 at 7pm ET, when it will present Mars: The Phoenix Lands.

The two-hour special will include live footage as the Phoenix Rover arrives on the planet's surface at 7:46pm ET. The craft will be the first to explore the Martian arctic, and the Phoenix team hopes to uncover clues in the icy soil about the history of near-surface ice and its potential for habitability.

Hosted by Daily Planet's Jay Ingram - who will transmit live on the ground from the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California - the special will cover the reactions of international space scientists and chronicle the Rover's development, which was more than nine months in the making.