NASA TV's This Week NASA, March 16, 2012

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/TWAN_03_16_12.html

This Week @ NASA, March 16, 2012

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This Week at NASA…
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GRAIL DOING SCIENCE – JPL/MSFC
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Ebb and Flow, NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL spacecraft, have officially begun collecting science data as they orbit the moon. Scientists will use the information gathered by the twin spacecraft to produce a high-resolution map of the lunar gravitational field. That should provide unprecedented detail about the moon's internal structure and composition, and lead to a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. Science activities are expected to conclude on May 29.

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STATION SCIENCE ON FIRE– HQ/GRC
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Aboard the International Space Station, flame tests continued for the Structure and Liftoff In Combustion Experiment, or SLICE. The experiment investigates the nature of flames in microgravity.

Don Pettit talks to Mission Control:

“I’m ready to light the flame.”

The station tests have yielded stable lifted flames, which can be simpler to model numerically. This research in the world’s only laboratory in microgravity could lead to reduced pollution emissions and more efficient burning by a wide variety of industries.

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STAY WITH IT - HQ
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Moderator Question during panel discussion:

“So why do we need engineers.”

Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator:

“The things that we want to do; the technology development that we have to do to put humans beyond low earth orbit, which is our ultimate goal, require people with engineering backgrounds.”

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden was at Georgia Tech to help kick off STAY WITH IT, a new, White House initiative to attract more U.S. college students to engineering,

“So stay with it, stay with it, stay with it.”

Along with Intel, MTV, Google and Facebook, the online host for the announcement, the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness has forged this new public-private partnership through which students can learn about engineering internships, financial support and summer bridge programs for entering freshmen. More than 65 companies have aligned with STAY WITH IT to double their engineering internships this year. That’ll result in more than 7,000 opportunities for hands-on, technical job experience.

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PATRIOT AWARD HONORS – HQ
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Administrator Bolden has been honored with a Patriot Award for his support of employees serving in the National Guard and Reserve. Guard and Reserve employees or their spouses can nominate supervisors for the Department of Defense honor.

Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator:

“I think it’s really important for us as an organization to recognize the talent that they bring and find a way to get them back into the workforce, if they left us to go off to do their reserve or their national guard time, because they bring an incredible wealth and breadth of talent that we’re always searching for.”

Also receiving a Patriot Award but unable to attend the NASA Headquarters ceremony was Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Bill Gerstenmaier. Accepting on his behalf was the directorate’s John Olson.