NASA's official Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, or COLBERT, patch

What may be the most expensive consolation prize in NASA history will soon be aboard the International Space Station. A $5 million treadmill named for political satirist and faux TV pundit Stephen Colbert will be one of the first items unloaded this afternoon from a cargo container docked at the station, according to the Associated Press.

The Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, now as elevated as its namesake’s ego, will soon be used by astronauts to stay healthy and strengthen their muscles in the zero-G environment.

Earlier this year, NASA started an online poll allowing Web site visitors to vote on a name for the space station’s latest module, Node 3. But NASA also allowed visitors to write in their own suggestion. That’s when Colbert implored the viewers of his Comedy Central program “The Colbert Report” to write his name in. And boy, did they — members of the Colbert Nation cast more than 230,000 votes for their hero, far more than the second-place choice, “Serenity.” *

Though Colbert won the vote fair and square, NASA instead chose to name Node 3 “Tranquility,” in honor of the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Colbert was, of course, outraged at the subversion of democracy. But when astronaut Sunita Williams told him that a treadmill would instead bear his name, he quickly changed his tune. Video of the announcement after the jump:

 

 

* One other popular suggestion was to name Node 3 after Scientology diety and intergalactic alien overlord Xenu. NASA has apparently never commented on Xenu’s popularity, but Colbert sure did:

Marine Corps Major Gen. Charles Bolden is now NASA’s administrator, with Laurie Garver as deputy administrator. The nominations were approved by voice vote.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., managed Bolden’s nomination on the floor. Nelson, a former astronaut, flew with Bolden on a 1986 space shuttle mission.

A NASA image of methane, not martians, on Mars.

No, little green men have not been found on Mars and residents of West Windsor Township, N.J. have nothing to fear. But a team of NASA scientists have discovered something that could prove there is life on the red planet: methane.

The gas is a byproduct of biological and geological activity. On Earth, much of the methane in Earth’s atmosphere is released by organisms as they digest food. But geological processes, such iron oxidation, also release the gas.

NASA observations of the Martian atmosphere over the last several years have shown that methane is being continually released into the air there, but the scientists have not been able to determine the cause.

Here is what NASA’s Michael Mumma, the lead author of an upcoming paper on the findings, had to say:

Right now, we do not have enough information to tell whether biology or geology — or both — is producing the methane on Mars…But it does tell us the planet is still alive, at least in a geologic sense. It is as if Mars is challenging us, saying, ‘hey, find out what this means.’

Gration is a decorated fighter pilot and held senior policy positions in the military, but does not have a space background, according to Space News.

No word on whether current NASA administrator Mike Griffin’s wife has ended her campaign to convince Obama her husband should stay.

Save Mike Griffin?

Rebecca Griffin apparently sent the appeal entitled “Campaign for Mike” on Christmas Eve. According to AP, she told the recipients:

Yes, once again I am embarrassing my husband by reaching out to our friends and ‘imposing’ on them…. And if this is inappropriate, I’m sorry.”

It’s not clear why she’d start such a petition, particularly given the reportedly strained relationship between her husband and the head of Obama’s NASA policy team, Lori Garver. I blogged last month about an Orlando Sentinel report that Griffin was not sharing information with Garver and her team.

In addition to that, NASA spokesman David Mould told AP Michael Griffin wasn’t campaigning to keep his job and would likely be replaced.

But despite these obvious roadblocks, this reporter wonders if Rebecca Griffin won’t be successful in the end. After all, in recent years there have been a few successful online campaigns.

For example, in 2007, the fans for the now-cancelled show “Jericho” used an online appeal to convince CBS to keep the program on the air for another season. And a couple of New York Mets fans started an online petition to save the team’s giant homerun apple from the scrapheap or auction block after the team moves from Shea Stadium to the new Citi Field this spring. The Star-Ledger reports that the apple will be on display at Citi Field.

If television and sports fans can meet with such success, surely fans of the NASA administrator can mount a successful campaign…right?

The report, written by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, said that nothing could have been done to save the crew. But the board used lessons from the accident to make recommendations to NASA about how to improve to flight vehicles, equipment and training to increase the chances astronauts could survive a future accident.

For example, the report noted that one crew member wasn’t wearing a helmet and three weren’t wearing gloves that could have delayed the effects of depressurization. The design of the “advanced crew escape suit” worn on reentry, which was developed separate from the shuttle, meant that some items, like gloves, inhibited the performance of reentry tasks, the board found.

The board also found the seat and helmet design did not protect crew from bodily harm once the crew lost control of the shuttle.
 
The investigation board recommended NASA design spacecrafts and suits together to ensure that the suits are compatible with reentry operations crew will have to conduct. It also recommended better seat restraints and helmets designed to provide improved head and neck protection.

Along with the report, NASA released a list of steps it has taken to improve safety on the space shuttle and in the design of the Constellation program’s crew vehicle, Orion.

Among some of the implemented recommendations:

• Suit and seat designs for Orion that are integrated to ensure compatibility.
• Improved seat restraints for the space shuttle.
• A crashworthy flight data recorder for Orion.
• Improved training that integrates problem solving and survival techniques in the event of an emergency.

NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program.

The piece goes on to say that Griffin also telling federal employees and contractors what they can tell the Obama team.

A NASA spokesman denied the allegations and said that although there are concerns that Obama’s six-person transition team, led by former NASA associate administrator Lori Garver, lacks the engineering skills needed to judge some of the technical programs, the administration is working well with the transition team.

Garver wouldn’t comment to the Sentinel, but sources close to her confirmed there were heated exchanges. Griffin is said to want to protect his signature program, the multi-billion dollar Constellation program, which is aimed at sending Americans back to the moon. (Incidentally, today is the 36th anniversary of the last time NASA landed on the moon.)

If cooperation is truly a problem at NASA — or any another agency for that matter — perhaps it’s time for the White House and Obama’s transition office to sit those folks down and make them watch the Sesame Street clip below. Because as any preschooler can tell you: cooperation makes it happen.

Hubble took the first picture of a planet outside our solar system orbiting a star called Fomalhaut, NASA has announced.

Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas, of the University of California at Berkley, and his team have been studying debris around the star since 2001. Obervations taken 21 months apart show that there is an object moving around that star the way Earth moves around the sun.

An actual image from Hubble showing the planet orbiting its star.

To celebrate this federally supported discovery, we give you the following facts, courtesy of NASA:

• The planet called Fomalhaut b is located 25 light-years away from us in the costellation Piscis Australis.
• Scientists estimate the planet is three times the mass of Jupiter
• The planet is 10.7 billion miles from the star, 10 times the distance between Saturn and our sun.
• The planet takes 872 years to make a complete orbit around the star.

Photo credit: NASA. For a larger image click here. For addtional media click here.