As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
Sony PlayStation hit by hackers
Hackers shut down Sony’s PlayStation network and a flight carrying a senior company executive is diverted over security fears.
Star Wars Commander for iOS Review
Star Wars Commander is the latest in the Star Wars franchise of apps from Lucas Arts that brings a tower defence style game to the Rebellion versus Empire universe. Like many such games, the object is to keep your own base safe and secure while also leading attacks on your enemy bases to collect currency and materials to further upgrade and build your own base. This is where the game takes a twist. In Star Wars Commander you can choose if you want to fight for the Rebel Alliance or if you want to take up arms for the Galactic
The post Star Wars Commander for iOS Review appeared first on AlliOSNews.
VIDEO: Will smartphones change shopping?
Many people are familiar with buying goods online, but now technology can also play a part when shopping on the High Street.
VIDEO: Is video gaming a spectator sport?
Video game fans descend on Coventry for the UK’s biggest gaming festival but is watching others play really a spectator sport?
Cybersecurity Insurance Still Requires Cybersecurity
OpenSSL vulnerabilities are sticking around for a while. In fact, recently two new ones were announced: One allows criminals to run an arbitrary code on a vulnerable computer/device, and the other allows man-in-the-middle attacks. A more famous openSSL vulnerability that made headlines earlier this year is the Heartbleed bug.
Might cybersecurity insurance be a viable solution?
As reported in SC Magazine, Yes, says Hunton & Williams LLP. Cybersecurity insurance fixes the problems that these vulnerabilities cause—that technology alone can’t always mitigate.
Hunton & Williams LLP reports that GameOver Zeus malware infiltrated half a million to a million computers, resulting in gargantuan losses to businesses and consumers. The firm says that antivirus software just isn’t enough to prevent mass infection. The fact is, advances in malicious code have rendered antivirus software frightfully weak, continues the firm..While not everyone agrees on this point, Hunton & Williams recommends a proactive approach which includes assessment of risk transfer methods, e.g., insurance.
Laurie Mercer, from the security consulting company Contest Information Security, also believes in cybersecurity insurance. Mercer uses cars as an analogy. A car must stick to safety standards. The car gets serviced every so often. But the car also has various buttons and whatnots inside that can alert the driver of a problem.
Likewise, with cybersecurity, products can be certified with commercial product assurance accreditation. A website can get a regular security audit every so often. And like the interior buttons of a car, a website can have a response strategy to a cyber incident or some kind of detection for an attack. However, the car should still be insured.
At a recent SC Congress London, Sarah Stephens from Aon EMEA pointed out that cyber insurance is rising in popularity. But Andrew Rose, a security analyst with Forrester, noted that many threats can be resolved with adequate plans in place.
Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to AllClearID. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video. Disclosures.
PlayStation Network Brought Down By DDoS Attack
Gamers woke up to an unpleasant surprise on Sunday morning when hackers brought down Sony’s PlayStation Network by way of a distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attack.
Sony tweeted that the problem was being addressed:
Network update: our engineers are aware of the issues and are working to resolve them. We’ll keep you posted – sorry for the inconvenience
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) August 24, 2014
The company also confirmed the outage in a blog post, saying that there had been “an attempt to overwhelm our network with artificially high traffic.” On the bright side, Sony stated that “no personal information” had been accessed by the attack.
Per Shacknews.com, Sony Online Entertainment’s servers and Blizzard’s Battle.net servers were also hit.
A group called Lizard Squad claimed responsibility for the attack. As Inquisitr points out, the group then indicated that the action against Sony’s servers wouldn’t stop until the U.S. ceased attacks on the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL):
Kuffar don’t get to play videogames until bombing of the ISIL stops. #ISIL #PSN #ISIS
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 24, 2014
Today we planted the ISIS flag on @Sony‘s servers #ISIS #jihad pic.twitter.com/zvqXb2f5XI
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 24, 2014
Inquisitr also reports that Twitter user @FamedGod took credit for the attack after Lizard Squad initially claimed responsibility:
Why must someone take credit of ones work? LizardSquad couldnt hurt a fly. Decrypting a memory dump and finding the server was all my work.
— Fame (@FamedGod) August 24, 2014
In an alarming twist, Lizard Squad tweeted that explosives were on a plane carrying John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment:
.@AmericanAir We have been receiving reports that @j_smedley‘s plane #362 from DFW to SAN has explosives on-board, please look into this.
— Lizard Squad (@LizardSquad) August 24, 2014
TechCrunch reports that the plane was diverted to Phoenix to have its cargo inspected, presumably due to concern over Lizard Squad’s tweets.
As of the publication of this article, the PlayStation Network is still down.
Tesla Owners' Full-Page Newspaper Ad Gets Elon Musk's Attention
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that he would implement “many of the suggestions” floated by a New York couple who took out a full-page ad in a local Silicon Valley newspaper.
The letter, signed by “two VERY satisfied Tesla owners” from Southold, New York, asks for the car’s cupholders to be moved forward, its center console to be redesigned, and sensors that beep to alert drivers when objects are close, among other requests. It was printed in the Palo Alto Weekly.
The couple also thought Musk could do a bit better in the marketing department.
“People are fascinated by my Tesla, and my wife’s Tesla,” they wrote. “Promotion of your cars to the general public could only have a positive effect, creating many additional enthusiastic Tesla owners.”
In response to the very public customer feedback, Musk tweeted a photo of the open letter to his nearly 860,000 followers.
Ad taken out in Palo Alto Daily by two Model S owners is right. Many of the suggestions will be implemented soon. pic.twitter.com/cF43PvJDgQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 23, 2014
Tesla did not immediately respond to questions from The Huffington Post about which changes it would make or when it plans to implement them.
Apple May Give You A New iPhone Battery For Free
Is your Kim Kardashian game draining your iPhone battery too quickly? You may be eligible for a replacement from Apple.
In a post on its website, the company announced that it will replace the battery packs for free in some phones sold between September 2012 and January 2013. A flaw in a “very small percentage” of devices sold during that window causes the phones to suddenly lose charge and need to be plugged in frequently. The company started replacing the batteries on Aug. 22.
To find out if you’re eligible, Apple has a serial number checker here. The company also said it would refund customers who have already paid to replace faulty batteries.
But, Apple noted, don’t get all crazy and think it’s going to give you a freebie after you accidentally dropped your phone on the dance floor last weekend. Broken screens and other damages can make it difficult to replace the battery, so even if you’re eligible for a replacement, you might be on the hook for other costs, the company said.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request from The Huffington Post for comment on Sunday.
(Hat tip: 9to5Mac)
This Seat Belt Could Stop You From Falling Asleep At The Wheel
It doesn’t always get as much recognition as drunk driving, but drowsy driving is also worrisome and dangerous behavior. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that tired drivers cause more than 100,000 crashes a year, leading to 40,000 injuries and 1,550 deaths.
According to a HuffPost/YouGov poll, 45 percent of Americans said that at least once they have felt so tired while driving that they thought they might fall asleep at the wheel.
But what if your car got that feeling before you did — and alerted you before you dozed off or crashed?
That’s the idea behind Harken, which is a system of sensors in the driver’s seat and seat belt that measure breathing and heart rate. The system was developed by a number of universities, companies and technology centers working together in a consortium funded by a research branch of the EU, Mashable reported.
The “intelligent materials” embedded in the seat belt and seat capture both heart rate and respiratory pace, which change when we grow tired. “[T]he variation in heart and respiratory rate are good indicators of the state of the driver as they are related to fatigue,” Harken researcher José Solaz said in a statement. “So when people go into a state of fatigue or drowsiness, modifications appear in their breathing and heart rate; Harken can monitor those variables and therefore warn the driver before the onset of symptoms of fatigue.”
Some luxury car manufacturers have already begun experimenting with a similar idea, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
According to the video above, Harken has been tested on closed driving tracks and will have to be tested in real-life traffic as well. Check out the full clip for more on how this smart seat belt works to fight drowsy driving.
h/t auto123.com
Florida Citrus Growers Wage 'War' To Try And Stop Deadly Greening Disease
LAKE WALES, Fla. (AP) — The tourists stream to Florida in their cars, intent on a week at Disney or a sugar-sand seashore or a nonstop party on South Beach. Road weary and thirsty, they pull over at one of the state’s five official welcome centers. They walk inside, and then they look up.
“The best start under the sun,” reads a big sign. “FLORIDA ORANGE JUICE.”
Behind a counter, a woman sits with a stack of paper cups. “Welcome to Florida,” she says with a big smile. “Orange or grapefruit?”
The juice is cold and sweet. It tastes like the Sunshine State.
Once, emerald green trees bursting with citrus carpeted more than half of the state, from the northern reaches of Jacksonville and the parks of Orlando to the Miami coastline. Oranges, especially, have long been synonymous with the magic of Florida.
Think back to those old advertisements touting OJ as a vitamin-filled glass of goodness. The dream of Florida as a tropical vacation paradise was cemented in Americans’ minds through such promotions. Today, the orange adorns the state license plate. There is even a county called Citrus.
The people behind the groves have been among Florida’s most influential. The University of Florida’s famed football stadium was named after an orange magnate, and at least three of the state’s governors were citrus growers.
Throughout the decades, citrus has stood strong — through freezes, hurricanes and rampant development.
But now the $9 billion industry is facing its biggest threat yet, putting at risk the state’s economy and very identity. Blame a mottled brown bug no bigger than a pencil eraser and a disease called “the yellow dragon.”
___
Have you seen those commercials that begin with a farmer’s leather-gloved hands opening to reveal a blossom that ripens into an orange? The ads are for Florida’s Natural juice, and Ellis Hunt Jr. is the man behind the brand.
Tall and thin, wearing jeans and a plain white button-down with a Florida-honed tan on his 61-year-old face, Hunt could star in one of those spots. His family owns 5,000-plus acres of groves and is part of the co-op that contributes to Florida’s Natural — the third-largest juice brand in the country, behind Pepsi’s Tropicana and Coca-Cola’s Minute Maid.
Hunt’s grandfather started the company in 1922, and ever since Hunt could walk, his life was surrounded by oranges. He followed his father into the business, and now serves on the state’s powerful citrus commission. He jokes that the backbreaking task of picking fruit was what inspired him to attend college, so he could take a rest from hard work.
This summer, Hunt’s has been driving his truck through his groves in Polk County, the state’s top citrus-producing region, and what he sees is uncertainty. Many of his trees look beautiful, acres upon acres of vibrant green. But trouble can be spotted if you look closely.
Hunt stops his truck, climbs out and points to a tree’s limb. Some leaves have turned yellow, and the hue is spreading in waves. He guesses that 75 percent of his groves are infected.
In China, where it was first found, the disease is called huanglongbing. Translation: “the yellow dragon.” In Florida, it’s known simply as “greening.”
It arrived here via a tiny invasive bug called the Asian Citrus Psyllid, which carries bacteria that are left behind when the psyllid feeds on a citrus tree’s leaves. The tree continues to produce useable fruit, but eventually disease clogs the vascular system. Fruit falls, and the tree slowly dies.
The psyllid isn’t native to Florida but is believed to have arrived from someone who perhaps unknowingly brought a slip of a tree from Asia. The bug was first spotted in the state in 1998, and some think it then spread on the winds of hurricanes. Greening showed up in 2005. There is no cure, and no country has ever successfully eradicated it.
All of that has Florida’s growers in a frenzy to find a way to stop the disease.
“It feels like you’re in a war,” Hunt said.
Hunt estimates he’s spending some $2,000 an acre on production costs, a 100 percent increase from 10 years ago. Much of that goes toward nutrients and spraying to try to control the psyllids. The trees that don’t survive are pulled out of the earth and tossed onto a giant bonfire.
Nearly all of the state’s citrus groves are affected in varying degrees by greening, and researchers, growers and experts agree that the crisis has already started to compromise Florida’s prominence as a citrus-growing region. Florida is second in the world, behind Brazil, in growing juice oranges, producing about 80 percent of juice in the U.S.
This past growing season, the state produced 104 million boxes of oranges, which comprise the bulk of Florida’s overall citrus crop. In 2003, two years before greening was discovered and prior to several devastating hurricanes, 243 million boxes were picked.
“This affects the whole state. The economic impact. The landscape. The iconic image of Florida and how it has drawn people here to smell the orange blossoms in the spring and look forward to that Christmas gift of fresh Florida citrus,” said state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, whose family has grown oranges in Polk County since the early 1900s. “It will have a ripple effect throughout the economy if we can’t get our arms around this disease.”
Experts say that if a solution isn’t found, Florida’s entire citrus industry could collapse. Officials worry that some packinghouses and processing plants will have to close because of a lack of fruit. That could send the industry, with its 75,000 jobs, tumbling.
Compounding the problem is the timing of it: The disease coincides with an increase in foreign competition and a decrease in juice consumption as health-conscious consumers count carbs. In July, U.S. orange juice retail sales fell to the lowest level in 12 years for a second consecutive four-week period.
“We’re in the fight of our life,” said Michael Sparks, the CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual, the marketing and lobbying arm for the state’s citrus growers.
Already, some are losing.
In the early 1980s, farmer Richard Skinner and his wife took over a small grove near Tampa planted nearly 100 years ago by his wife’s grandfather. For years they thrived, selling boxes of oranges to large juice companies to augment their roadside business.
When greening struck his grove in 2011, Skinner realized he couldn’t sustain the cost of chemicals and nutrients needed to keep the trees alive. Within two years, 2,600 trees were cut down — and the century-old grove was gone.
“We cried,” said Skinner, who is 74 years old and doesn’t look like a man who cries easily.
___
The war room in the fight against the yellow dragon is found in Lake Alfred, 30 miles southwest of Walt Disney World, in a nondescript cluster of buildings at the University of Florida’s Citrus Research and Education Center.
There, some of the world’s top citrus researchers — from the U.S., China, Brazil, India — slouch over microscopes and peer into makeshift greenhouses, hoping to unlock the puzzle that is greening. They talk about nucleotides and genomes like regular folks order a sandwich.
They understand clearly that there is no magic bullet — an injection or spray, for example — to cure the disease instantly. So they concentrate on two things: a short-term workaround that will allow existing trees to survive, and a long-term solution — possibly three to five years away — to develop a greening resistant tree.
Experiments study everything from how fast the psyllid flies to how it’s attracted to the odor of an infected tree. One French researcher has tied the bug to a string and a post to measure its flight patterns. Another study, underway at an organic grower’s groves, assesses whether tiny wasps can be released en masse to gobble the bad bugs.
For three decades, horticulture professors Jude Grosser and Fred Gmitter have worked at the center, mostly studying citrus breeding and genetics. The two men are rock stars in the citrus world because of their vast knowledge. Now, much of their focus is on greening.
Grosser and Gmitter have discovered that a certain variety of orange trees grafted onto one particular kind of rootstock appears to be more tolerant to greening. Those trees could play a big role in managing the disease down the road.
“A lot of people are looking for miracle cures, but the answer for greening will be a number of different pieces,” Grosser said.
The pair want a solution and fast. They’ve spent their careers developing different fruit varieties, such as easy-to-peel and extra-juicy oranges. Some varieties are nearly ready for release and sales, they said, but most growers don’t want to take a chance on anything new until greening is gone.
“We need to give the tree a chance to beat the disease,” said Grosser. “How can we do that?”
Since 2008, $90 million has been spent in Florida on greening research, much of that money raised by growers from a tax they pay on every box of citrus that’s picked. And the 2014 federal farm bill included $125 million for greening research.
Growers are also taking matters into their own hands. Some have tried putting giant tents over their trees and using the sun’s heat in an attempt to kill the greening.
Rick Kress, president of Southern Gardens Citrus, one of the state’s largest juice suppliers, has hired a private team of researchers to work on genetically engineering a greening resistant tree with the DNA from spinach.
Kress knows that introducing juice from a genetically modified orange would create another hurdle because of the public’s perception of such foods. But the alternative — no juice at all — is unthinkable.
“Irrespective of the challenges, Florida orange juice is not going to go away,” he said. “Because Florida had the disease first, we’re on the forefront of dealing with it and finding a solution that will ultimately benefit the entire United States citrus industry.”
California growers, who raise the majority of the U.S.’s fresh citrus crop, are also petrified of greening. The psyllid has been found in various places around that state, and greening was detected in one residential tree in Los Angeles in 2012. California researchers are doing their own experiments and piggybacking on the Florida research. In Texas, greening has struck fewer than 200 commercial trees, and the disease has not been spotted in Arizona.
In Polk County, Hunt has been planting new trees to replace the diseased ones. He realizes that this is a gamble; psyllids prefer to munch on young, tender leaves. But if he can keep the bugs away long enough for the new trees to grow and bear fruit, maybe by then researchers will have found a solution to greening.
“We can’t let this thing go down on our watch,” he said.
Hunt had always hoped his family’s younger generation would one day take over the business. But now he worries that Florida juice could become a niche product, similar to pomegranate juice. It’s something he’s reluctant to contemplate.
“You don’t want to put your head in the sand and say everything’s OK. It’s not OK,” he said. “But you have to get up in the morning and go to work believing that we will win the battle.”
___
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
Researchers Develop Transparent Solar Concentrator That Could Cover Windows, Electronics
Scientists at Michigan State University announced this week the creation of a “transparent luminescent solar concentrator” that could turn windows and even cellphone screens into solar-power generators.
This technology could mean that one day entire skyscrapers might be able to generate solar power without blocking out light or ruining tenants’ views.
The material works by absorbing light in the invisible spectrum (ultraviolet and near infrared) and then re-emitting it in the infrared. The infrared light is then channeled to the edge of the clear surface, where thin strips of photovoltaic cells generate the power.
Yimu Zhao, a doctoral student in chemical engineering and materials science, and Richard Lunt, assistant professor of chemical engineering and materials science, run a test in Lunt’s lab. Lunt and his team have developed a new material that can be placed over windows and create solar energy. Photo by G.L. Kohuth
Because we cannot see infrared or ultraviolet light, the material remains transparent even while concentrating sunlight. Previous luminescent solar concentrators have been developed, but they emitted light in the visible spectrum, creating a stained-glass effect.
“No one wants to sit behind colored glass,” Richard Lunt, who leads the lab researching this new technology, said in a press release. He likened the experience to “working in a disco.”
The new technology is promising, but needs to be made more efficient. Researchers say that the solar conversion efficiency is around one percent. Ideally, this could be increased to more than five percent. The researchers note that the highest conversion efficiency achieved by a non-transparent luminescent solar concentrator is about seven percent.
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar technologies can have efficiencies ranging from eight percent to almost 45 percent, depending on the particular properties desired. A conventional panel like the kind typically installed on home rooftops has an efficiency of around 15 percent.
A transparent luminescent solar concentrator waveguide is shown with colorful traditional luminescent solar concentrators in the background. The new LSC can create solar energy but is not visible on windows or other clear surfaces. Photo by G.L. Kohuth
Luminescent solar concentrators are less efficient than traditional photovoltaics, which absorb a larger range of wavelengths, but they could allow energy harvesting on surfaces that would otherwise never be used to generate power.
Rumors surfaced earlier this year that Apple’s iPhone 6 will include a different type of solar screen, but you may not want to get your hopes up just yet. Forbes contributor Nigam Arora wrote in January that the technology is not quite ready. A “screen with a laminate of film containing solar cells is likely in iPhone 7 but not in iPhone 6.”
The transparent technology could be used in a variety of applications, Lunt said, and its affordability means it has the potential for eventual commercial or industrial use. “Ultimately we want to make solar harvesting surfaces that you do not even know are there,” he said. The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Advanced Optical Materials in July.
Photos and captions courtesy of Michigan State University.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story attributed the innovation to researchers at the University of Michigan.
Neptune's Moon Triton Spotlighted In 'Best-Ever' Map Created From Old Voyager Data
A scientist has created the best-ever global color map of Neptune’s big moon Triton, using images taken by a NASA spacecraft 25 years ago.
Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston produced the map after restoring photos snapped by the Voyager 2 probe during its flyby of Neptune and Triton on Aug. 25, 1989. The new map has also been turned into a minute-long movie of Voyager 2′s historic Triton encounter — the first and only time a spacecraft has ever visited the Neptune system.
The new map, which has a resolution of 1,970 feet (600 meters) per pixel, may help bring enigmatic Triton back into the spotlight. [Photos of Neptune, The Mysterious Blue Planet]
Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute used data from NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, which flew by Neptune and its big moon Triton on Aug. 25, 1989, to create this best-ever global color map of the moon.
“In the intervening quarter century and its many discoveries, I think we have tended to forget how strange and exotic Triton really is!” Schenk wrote in a blog post Thursday (Aug. 21).
“Its effective surface age may be a little as 10 million years [old], clearly implying that active geology is going on today,” he added. “The cantaloupe terrain, which I interpreted back in 1993 as due to crustal overturn (diapirism), hasn’t been seen anywhere else. The volcanic region, with its smooth plains and volcanic pits large and small, is the size of Texas. And the southern terrains still defy interpretation.”
Schenk produced the map using green, blue and orange filters. Colors have been enhanced to accentuate contrast but still show Triton roughly as human eyes would see it, NASA officials said.
In an interesting twist, NASA’s New Horizons probe is scheduled to cross the orbit of Neptune on Monday (Aug. 25), 25 years to the day after Voyager 2′s encounter. New Horizons is streaking toward a flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015 that should return the first good looks at the distant dwarf planet and its moons.
The connections between Voyager 2 and New Horizons don’t stop there; Triton and Pluto are very similar to each other in some ways. Both are just slightly smaller than Earth’s moon, possess thin, nitrogen-dominated atmospheres and have various ices (of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen) on their surfaces, Schenk noted.
“What will we see at Pluto? Guesses have ranged from active geology to cold and cratered, so we are in for a suspenseful summer next year!” he wrote on his blog.
“Triton is of importance as it offers clues to what geologic features might look like on Pluto, given that the icy crusts of both bodies are probably rather similar and would presumably react in similar ways under internal stress and heat,” he added. “So if there were or are volcanoes on Pluto, they could look similar to those we see on Triton.”
Voyager 2 launched in August 1977, a few weeks before its twin, Voyager 1. The pair conducted an unprecendented “grand tour” of the outer solar system, returning good looks at the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune systems.
Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 then kept right on flying. Voyager 1 entered interstellar space in August 2012, and Voyager 2 (which took a different route through the solar system) is poised to do so soon.
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Voyager 2′s ‘Hair-Raising’ Fly-By Of Triton Animated
Neptune Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Other Blue Planet?
Photos from NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 Probes
Moons of Neptune: Giant Blue Planet’s 14 Satellites Unmasked (Infographic)
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Steven Nagel, Veteran NASA Space Shuttle Astronaut, Dies at 67
NASA astronaut Steven Nagel, who flew four space shuttle missions, died Thursday (Aug. 21). He was 67.
Steven Nagel died after a long battle with cancer, the Association of Space Explorers stated on Facebook. The international organization, to which Nagel belonged, includes more than 350 men and women who have flown in space.
Nagel joined the astronaut corps in 1978 with NASA’s first group of trainees selected for the space shuttle program. Although he was chosen to pilot the orbiter, his first flight was as a mission specialist, a position generally assigned to scientists and engineers.
NASA portrait of STS-55 mission commander Steven Nagel.
“I really wanted to fly as a pilot, so at the time — because there was no explanation that went with it — I wondered, ‘Are they telling me I’m not good enough to fly as a pilot?’” Nagel told a NASA interviewer about his 1985 assignment to the shuttle Discovery’s STS-51G crew. “Nothing against mission specialists. I would trade my pilot’s slot to go be a mission specialist and do a [spacewalk], certainly, but it’s just that ‘What are they trying to tell me here?’”
“But I think what it really was, our class was very large, and they’re getting down to the point where I think [they] probably wanted to get us all flown, and this was a way to do it a little quicker,” Nagel recalled. [7 Space Shuttle Astronaut Firsts]
Nagel’s first week in Earth orbit included helping to deploy three communications satellites for AT&T, Mexico and the Arab Satellite Communications Organization, as well as a free-flying platform devoted to astronomy experiments and an experiment for the Department of Defense’s Strategic Defense Initiative (colloquially known as “Star Wars”).
In the pilot seat
Nagel’s turn in the pilot seat came on his second flight.
Nagel launched in late October 1985 as part of the eight-member STS-61A crew onboard space shuttle Challenger. The week-long flight, which set the still-standing record for the most people to have launched and landed on the same spacecraft, was also the first shuttle mission to be funded and directed by another nation: the former West Germany, overseeing the European-built Spacelab module mounted in Challenger’s payload bay.
“Not having a U.S. manager made it more complex, but I see that mission was kind of an early lead-in to the space station,” Nagel told a NASA interviewer in 2002. “Maybe in a way a Spacelab is kind of like a mini space station. You are doing scientific work, but your space station is inside the shuttle, and you’re up there, in our case, a week.”
As the mission’s pilot, Nagel did not have much to do with 75 experiments being conducted inside the Spacelab, but that left time for observing the planet below.
“Jokingly, I said all I did on the second mission was purge fuel cells, dump water, take pictures, and prepare meals for the crew. I had no responsibility for any experiments in the back, so we were helping them out as much as we could,” Nagel told a NASA interviewer in 2002.
“The orbiter crew had time to look out the window,” Nagel noted. “So it was just a bonanza of Earth observations. It was great.”
The worst of times, the best of times
The STS-61A mission was the last successful flight of the shuttle Challenger before the orbiter and its 51L mission’s crew was lost in flight in January 1986. Nagel watched the ill-fated launch from a conference room at Johnson Space Center in Houston, but he was promptly sent to Florida to assist with the recovery of the shuttle’s debris.
He then represented the Astronaut Office in NASA’s effort to develop a crew escape system to improve the safety of the orbiters. Initially, the idea was to use a rocket-powered extraction method but ultimately a simpler extendable pole was adopted.
“This was my best time at NASA, actually,” Nagel stated. “Nothing I ever did was more fulfilling than that two years, to be honest, even flying.”
“This was better, because everybody was so focused on getting the shuttle flying again,” he remarked.
The shuttle was returned to flight in 1988, and three years later, Nagel followed as the commander of Atlantis’ STS-37 crew. The six-day mission was charged with deploying the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (GRO), the second of NASA’s “Great Observatories,” which also included the Hubble Space Telescope.
“The GRO was big,” Nagel said. “It was not physically as long as the Hubble, but it weighed a lot more. It was a lot denser. It was a great big thing, about 35,000 pounds, and it had three appendages that had to unfold once you get it out in the end of the [shuttle's robotic] arm.”
The first two of those appendages, the solar array wings, extended slowly one at a time. The third however, failed to move. To fix the problem, crew members Jerry Ross and Jay Apt were sent outside on a spacewalk.
“That was the first — what would you call it? Unscheduled EVA,” Nagel said. “It was planned as a contingency, but it was certainly not on the schedule. It was successful.”
Fourth and final flight
Nagel’s fourth and final launch in April 1993 got off to a late start. Already delayed from February due to technical concerns, the shuttle Columbia’s three main engines shut down at just T-3 seconds prior to liftoff as a result a valve leak on March 22. The abort postponed the flight another month as all three engines were replaced.
Once in space, Nagel and his STS-55 mission crewmates conducted experiments as part of the second German-led Spacelab flight. They also became on-orbit plumbers.
“‘You’ve got to stop using the toilet.’ Sounds funny on the ground. For real, this is, there was nothing life-threatening about it, but it could be mission-threatening. If you cannot get this problem resolved, you’re coming home. And what a tragedy that would be for the millions of dollars invested in this mission,” Nagel told a NASA interviewer.
A nitrogen leak had disabled the system used to flush the waste water from the toilet. So Nagel and his crew had to divert the water from its tank into a contingency bag.
“Periodically we’d have to empty the bag,” Nagel recalled. “You dump the water overboard out a port on the side of the orbiter … except instead of gas pressure to dump, one of us would have to squeeze the bag to dump the waste water.”
“It got us through the mission,” Nagel continued. “So who argues with success?”
Overall, the mission was a success. Over the course of the ten days, the flight logged the 365th day in space for the shuttle fleet and 100th day in orbit for Columbia. With the landing, Nagel had spent a total of 30 days, 1 hour and 34 minutes in space.
Continue reading at collectSPACE about astronaut Steven Nagel’s life before and after his four space shuttle missions.
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