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Tag: NASA

  • Ray Bradbury Honored With Mars Rover Landing Site

    NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced yesterday that it has dubbed the landing site of the Mars rover Curiosity “Bradbury Landing” in honor of sci-fi author Ray Bradbury. It was the Curiosity science team that chose to honor Bradbury, who passed away back in June, and the announcement coincided with what would have been Bradbury’s 92nd birthday.

    “This was not a difficult choice for the science team,” said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. “Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.”

    The honor seems fitting, considering Bradbury’s most popular work was The Martian Chronicles, which portrayed a human invasion of Mars. Bradbury attended several NASA space mission events throughout his life, and this week’s announcement was commemorated by the agency with a video of Bradbury reading his poem “If Only We Had Taller Been” at a symposium just before the Mariner 9 orbiter reached Mars in 1971.

    Apart from the landing site name, NASA also announced yesterday that Curiosity has successfully taken its first test drive. The rover tested its mobility by driving, turning, and reversing. The short trip took the rover about 20 feet from where it originally landed, and the tracks it left in the Martian surface can be seen in the photo above.

    “We have a fully functioning mobility system with lots of amazing exploration ahead,” said Matt Heverly, the mission’s lead rover driver.

    Curiosity still has several more days of testing ahead. Curiosity Project Manager Pete Theisinger said, “Curiosity is a much more complex vehicle than earlier Mars rovers. The testing and characterization activities during the initial weeks of the mission lay important groundwork for operating our precious national resource with appropriate care.”

    (Photo courtesy NASA/JPL)

  • Dinosaur Prints at NASA From a “Large, Armored Dinosaur”

    NASA this week revealed that a dinosaur footprint has been found at the Goddard Space Flight Center campus in Maryland. Ray Stanford, a well-known amateur dinosaur footprint-hunter in the Maryland area found the footprint and reported it to Goddard’s facility managment last week.

    “This was a large, armored dinosaur,” Stanford said. “Think of it as a four-footed tank. It was quite heavy, there’s a quite a ridge or push-up here… Subsequently the sand was bound together by iron-oxide or hematite, so it gave us a nice preservation, almost like concrete.”

    Stanford states that the dinosaur that left the track was a nodosaur, a squat, armored plant-eating dinosaur.

    Stanford was fastidious in confirming that the find was a dinosaur print, checking with a paleontologist at Johns Hopkins University before alerting NASA. He also had the U.S. Geological Survey date the find using the same sedimentary rock as the fossil. The fossil is approximately 110 to 112 million years old, meaning the print came from the Cretaceous Period.

    “The most thrilling thing about finding this one – I’ve found other nodasaur tracks – but what really threw me about this one [is that] I found it at Goddard Space Flight Center, and I love the paradox,” said Stanford. “Space scientists may walk along here, and they’re walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy armored dinosaur walked, maybe 110 to 112-million years ago.”

    Stanford encouraged others to look down and spot dinosaur tracks themselves to prevent them from being destroyed. He says people who find dinosaur footprints should notify someone at a museum or university that could identify the worth of a fossil and help preserve it.

    NASA officials stated they will consult Maryland officials and paleontologists to determine how the find will be preserved. Watch an excited Stanford show off the nodasaur track in the video below,:

    (Photo courtesy NASA/Goddard/Rebecca Roth)

  • NASA Picked These 5 Ideas To “Revolutionize” American Space Capabilities

    NASA announced on Friday that it has selected five technologies to fund, which could “revolutionize America’s space capabilities”.

    Earlier this year, NASA launched its Game Changing Development program, calling for proposals focused on “sudden and unexpected innovations” that could potentially change the game. Now, we know which ones NASA is betting on.

    The awards for the projects range from $125,000 to $1.8 million, with a total NASA investment of approximately $6 million through 2015.

    Here are the projects:

    1. Representing and Exploiting Cumulative Experience with Objects for Autonomous Manipulation

    This proposal comes from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. NASA says the technology could improve autonomous robotic operations using artificial intelligence during deep space missions.

    2. Lightweight High Performance Acoustic Suppression Technology Development

    This proposal comes from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “This technology could suppress acoustic environments during launch,” NASA explains. “By reducing vibrations by acoustic suppression during launch, the amount of prelaunch vibration stress testing for onboard instruments also could be reduced.”

    3. Fast Light Optical Gyroscopes for Precision Inertial Navigation

    This one comes from the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA says this technology could enhance navigation capabilities for spacecraft, by improving the performance of existing gyroscopes by a factor of 1,000.

    4. EHD-Based Variable Conductance Thermal Interface Material

    This one comes from Boeing, which recently reached an agreement with NASA as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.

    According to NASA, the development of this thermal material could provide better heat management for spacecraft.

    5. Membrane Enabled Reverse Lung

    This one comes from Oceaneering Space Systems in Houston. Simply put, it could reduce the number of life support systems required for Astronauts.

    NASA says the selected proposals each address “critical technological barriers” for the advancement of space exploration. Considering they’re trying to take space travel commercial, anything that can help in that regard has to be worth it.

  • India Announces Mars Mission One Week After Curiosity Landing

    It was expected that NASA, and by extension the U.S., would be the envy of the world after they successfully landed the Curiosity Mars Rover on the red planet last week. Nobody expected that envy to materialize into a real Mars mission from India.

    According to the Hurriyet Daily News, India has announced a plan to send a rocket to Mars next year. The plan calls for a launch in November 2013 which would see the rocket reaching Mars at some point in 2014.

    India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said that the “spaceship to Mars will be a huge step for us in the area of science and technology.” That spaceship will cost the nation an estimated $82 million. It’s reportedly being developed by the Indian Space Research Organization.

    It’s great that more countries are having ambitions of sending rockets into space, but it feels a little too much like the space race of the 60s. After the U.S. sent men to the moon, the Soviet Union tried their hand at the feat. They were less than successful.

    India’s mission should be more successful as they’re just sending a rocket to Mars. It’s hard to say if the country’s space program would have the resources available to them to build something like Curiosity at this point in time. If anybody could do it, it would be a country like India or China. Their economies and state funds would be enough to fund such a mission.

    Maybe the space race to Mars will help encourage more international collaboration like the International Space Station. It would be awesome to see a multi-national funded mission to Mars. Even if such a thing never exists, we’ll still get a reality TV show about the first manned mission to Mars.

  • Mars Rover Team Congratulated by President Obama

    It’s been one week since the Mars Science Laboratory’s rover Curiosity was lowered to the surface of Mars. Since then, the world has been treated to high-res images of the Gale crater landing site, a color panorama of the Martian surface, and even a 3-D image from the planet.

    Now that the celebrations have died down, the mission control team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California are settling in and sifting through the wealth of information provided by the rover. Before they can get down to doing the real work of scientific discovery, however, there are still some appearances to be made. Today, U.S. President Barack Obama called the Mars rover team to extend his congratulations.

    Obama told the team he was impressed with the landing sequence for the rover and that they had “captured the attention and imagination of millions of people, not just across our country, but people all around the world.”

    “What you accomplished embodies the American spirit and your passion and your commitment is making a difference,” said Obama. “And your hard work is now paying dividends, because our expectation is that Curiosity is gonna be telling us things that we did not know before and laying the groundwork for an even more audacious undertaking in the future, and that’s a human mission to the red planet.”

    The president also lightened the mood a bit by joking about Martians, saying, “If, in fact, you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away…I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate, but I suspect that will go to the top of my list. Even if they are just microbes, it will be pretty exiting”

    The phone conversation with the president was live-streamed on Ustream, but if you missed it the recording of the event can be seen below.



    Video streaming by Ustream

  • Just WTF Has NASA Done for You? New Site Gives You the Answers

    So, you’ve heard of NASA, right? Yeah, the space guys – the ones in the news recently for dropping a one-ton rover on the surface of Mars. Pretty impressive stuff if you ask me.

    But, some people need to be convinced that NASA is worth the (paltry) portion of our national budget that they receive. If you think that NASA is only about moon landings, satellites, space stations, and dirt-collection robots, then you need to check out a new site called WTF NASA.

    “What the f-ck has NASA done to make your life awesome?” That’s the question for which you can find answers on Northeastern student Jacob Mulligan’s site. Visitors are greeted with a simple fact about something that NASA research has been instrumental in providing for the public – for instance UV sunglasses. Each factoid is presented with a blip of explanation, and the ability to choose whether the information did the trick (convinced the person the NASA is worth it, I guess).

    There’s also a safe for work version, if people around your camp frown upon the f-word.

    I’m all for anything that’s pro-NASA, and this site definitely highlights some of the unknown benefits of our space program in a humorous fashion. But I’m not sure we need practical, everyday examples of things NASA has done for the public. They just put a giant rover on Mars, for pete’s sake. I shudder to think that exploration on its own merits just isn’t good enough for some people anymore.

  • After Landing On Mars, NASA Blows Up A Moon Lander

    After Landing On Mars, NASA Blows Up A Moon Lander

    The big news this week, and maybe even all year, is that NASA has officially landed on Mars again. The The Curiosity Mars Rover touched down on the red planet earlier this week and has been sending back gorgeous pictures from the surface of Mars ever since.

    While Mars may be in the news now, there is another project that NASA has been working on – sending a lander to the Moon and beyond. The idea is that we may be able to send a humanoid robot to live on the Moon for an extended period of time. To accomplish that mission, NASA has been developing the Morpheus project.

    Here’s what NASA has to say about the Morpheus project:

    Morpheus is a vertical test bed demonstrating new green propellant propulsion systems and autonomous landing and hazard detection technology. Designed, developed, manufactured and operated in-house by engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the Morpheus Project represents not only a vehicle to advance technologies, but also an opportunity to try out “lean development” engineering practices.

    All in all, it’s pretty awesome. If successful, they may be able to launch a renewable space rocket that’s capable of refueling itself on the wasted methane from ISS or even the methane on the Moon. It’s an ambitious plan and as such requires extensive testing here on Earth before it’s able to go to space.

    The latest test for the Morpheus moon lander didn’t go exactly as planned though. After lifting off the ground for a few seconds, it nosedived straight back into the ground. Even better, it catches fire and then explodes. I would say something about it being sad to see such technology go to waste, but it’s rare to see such an awesome explosion. I’m sure the guys at NASA were just as impressed until they realized that a couple million dollars just went down the tube.

    [Image Credit: Morpheus Lander/Flickr]

  • Curiosity Beams Back First Color Panorama of Mars

    Well, this is cool.

    Earlier in the week, NASA promised us bigger, color photos from the surface of Mars. And what do you know, mark them good on their word. That’s because the Curiosity rover has just sent the first color panaroma image from Gale Crater.

    Ok, it’s not in full resolution, but instead pieced together from 130 different 144×144 pixel images. Still, who’s complaining? Look, it’s MARS! (Click to enlarge)

    Mars Color Panorama

    NASA’s seems pretty thrilled about Curiosity getting out there and sampling the different materials that make up Mars’ surface:

    Scientists will be taking a closer look at several splotches in the foreground that appear gray. These areas show the effects of the descent stage’s rocket engines blasting the ground. What appeared as a dark strip of dunes in previous, black-and-white pictures from Curiosity can also be seen along the top of this mosaic, but the color images also reveal additional shades of reddish brown around the dunes, likely indicating different textures or materials.

    According to JPL, we can expect to get selected full frames from this panorama, which measure 1,200×1,200 pixels each, in due time.

  • Curiosity Rover Gives Us First 3D Images From Mars

    Early monday morning, while much of the east coast was asleep, NASA landed the most technologically advanced mars rover ever, the Curiosity, on the surface of the Red Planet.

    And ever since, we’ve been treated to photos and videos from the rover’s descent, as well as its landing spot – inside the Gale Crater. At first, the images came in with low resolution, and in black and white. Eventually, we got out first high-res shot of the Martian surface. NASA promised that the Curiosity rover would start sending back bigger, color photos as soon as the rover got its front cameras up and running.

    Soon, we saw the first color photo from Curiosity – showing the red, dust-strewn surface of Mars with a view of the rim of the Gale Crater in the distance. It was taken using the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), the camera located on the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm.

    Now, Curiosity has beamed back our first 3D images from both the front and the back of rover.

    “This image is a 3-D view in front of NASA’s Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The anaglyph was made from a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance Cameras on the front of the rover. The image is cropped but part of Mount Sharp, a peak that is about 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) high, is still visible rising above the terrain,” says NASA.

    Mars rover 3d photo

    And from the rear…

    “Part of the rim of Gale Crater, which is a feature the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, stretches from the top middle to the top right of the image. One of the rover’s wheels can be seen at bottom right. The bright spot is saturation from the sun,” says NASA.

    curiosity rover 3d image

    Like all you space nerds out there, we’ll be waiting anxiously for more images to arrive from the surface of Mars.

  • Curiosity Rover Descends To The Martian Surface [VIDEO]

    Like many people who dreamed of being an astronaut when they were kids, I’m pretty awestruck when it comes to anything NASA (and space in general). Because of that, I’ve been anxiously awaiting any updates from NASA concerning the Curiosity rover (MSL), the one-ton exploration vehicle that just landed on the surface of Mars.

    We know that all of the images we’ve seen so far are just the beginning – NASA says that as soon as the rover’s mast is deployed and the high-res camera is set up, we’ll start receiving bigger, color images from the Martian surface.

    Go ahead a call this a preliminary image too – or, set of images to be more exact. This 4 fps video just released by NASA/JPL shows the Curiosity’s descent to the surface of the Red Planet.

    This stop-motion video shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars. These thumbnail images were received on Earth on August 6th, 2012, and cover the last two and a half minutes of descent.

    It’s small and grainy – but amazing nonetheless. Check it out below:

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Recreated Using LEGOs

    Mars Rover Curiosity Recreated Using LEGOs

    NASA’s Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars, and the celebrations have begun. Photos and data will soon begin pouring in from Curiosity, revealing more of Mars in an effort to rise to President Obama’s challenge of sending humans to Mars by the mid-2030’s.

    In an effort to support the NASA mission with a creative endeavor, a LEGO version of the Curiosity rover has been created, complete with moving parts. Doug Moran and Will Gorman, members of Battle Bricks, created the replica using LEGO Mindstorms NXT robotics kits. According to Gorman, Battle Bricks is a low-cost alternative to BattleBots-type robotic combat.

    The LEGO rover was created using 7 LEGO NXT bricks, 13 LEGO NXT motors, 2 power function motors, and thousands of LEGOs. It has the ability to make 360 degree turns, just like its 1-ton real-life counterpart. Gorman was quick to point out that no glue was used in the LEGO Curiosity’s construction. Take a look below at how the LEGO rover moves to simulate the real thing:

    This is not the first version of Curiosity that has been created using LEGOs. Gorman and Moran built a first version of the rover for its launch from Kennedy Space Center last year. Gorman stated that since then the LEGO rover has gotten a more “robust” chassis and wheels. Below is the first version of Curiosity as a LEGO creation:

  • New Mars Photos Coming Later This Week; Bigger, and in Color

    UPDATE: NASA has released the first video of the descent.

    Since the Curiosity rover landed safely on the surface of Mars earlier today, we’ve only been treated to a few black and white photos from the rover’s rear Hazcam. Of course, “only” kind of sells it short, and simply is relative to what’s coming. The few images that we’ve received up to this point are amazing in their own right, but NASA says that bigger, better photos are on the way.

    The Curiosity rover is equipped to transmit better quality images – just as soon as the rover’s mast is deployed (it contains the high-res cameras). The official Twitter account of the rover says that later this week, we’ll start seeing “bigger, color pictures” from the surface of the Red Planet.

    But for now, here are some of the images that the Curiosity rover has sent back to an awestruck public:

    “The cameras are looking directly into the sun, so the top of the image is saturated. Looking straight into the sun does not harm the cameras. The lines across the top are an artifact called “blooming” that occurs in the camera’s detector because of the saturation,” says the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).

    The rover’s shadow:

    And be sure to check out the amazing photo snapped by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the rover descending via parachute.

    The journey to Mars for the 1,982-pound Curiosity rover took nine months. Its two-year mission involves investigation through image captures and the analysis of soil, rock, and atmospheric samples.

  • Curiosity Rover Photographed Parachuting To Mars

    Earlier this morning, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity made a safe and intact landing onto the surface of Mars, inside the Gale crater next to a three-mile high mountain. The nearly one-ton rover completed a nine-month journey by acing the landing, making way for a two year expedition to determine whether the planet’s past included some traces of microbial life.

    If all of that isn’t amazing enough for you, what if I told you that someone happened to grab a photo of the rover’s descent?

    The highResoultion Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE)’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which spends its time snapping pictures of Mars 24/7, just released this incredible image of the Curiosity’s descent

    Incredible.

  • Mars Rover: NASA Celebrates the Curiosity Landing [PHOTOS]

    Early this morning (around 1:32 am EDT), the most advanced Mars rover in the history of the space program touched down on the surface of Mars. The nearly 2,000-pound Curiosity executed a complex series of entry and landing maneuvers and landed safely on the surface, next to a three-mile high mountain.

    It’s a truly wonderful day for space enthusiasts, science lovers, and Americans in general – a testament to NASA’s ingenuity. And around the country, people are celebrating the historic landing.

    But nobody could possibly be as thrilled as the men and women directly involved in the Curiosity project.

    And NASA HQ’s Flickr photostream has a wonderful behind-the-scenes photo album of the moments leading up to and directly following the Mars rover landing. Let’s take a look, shall we?

    NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Mission Support in the back left. Quiet before the storm:

    NASA JPL HQ

    Entry day:

    White House Science and Technology Advisor John Holdren (yellow shirt) dropping in to show his support:

    MSL team hours before landing:

    NASA MSL Curiosity

    Landing. Jubilation:

    Mars Rover landing

    The Curiosity Rover now begins a two-year mission to study Mars for evidence of past microbial life.

    “This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory,” said NASA’s Charles Bolden. “President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030′s, and today’s landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal.”

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Safely Lands, Begins Two-Year Mission

    Mars Rover Curiosity Safely Lands, Begins Two-Year Mission

    After a trip that took around nine months, the most advanced rover ever produced by NASA has successfully landed on the surface of Mars. According to the Mars Science Laboratory everything went according to plan, as Curiosity aced each step in the most complex landing ever to take place on Mars to date.

    Curiosity touched down at 1:32 am EDT next to a three-mile high mountain on the Martian surface.

    The rover is 9 feet, 10 inches by 9 feet, 1 inch (not counting the arm, which is 7 feet long). It weighs in around the size of some automobiles – 1,982 pounds (nearly one ton).

    Curiosity’s two-year stay on Mars is currently seven and a half hours in, and images have already been coming in. Here’s that historic first image that was transmitted from the rover:

    And the early images have already received a high-res upgrade:

    These photos were taken through a fisheye lens on the rover’s base.

    As you may have guessed, Curiosity’s mission is to investigate Mars’ past ability to support life. Specifically, inside the Gale Crater area of the planet. The Curiosity rover will use a 10-instrument based investigation that includes a robotic arm for close-up inspections, cameras and imagers, and lab instruments to aid the rover in analysis of soil and atmospheric samples.

    NASA says that this important mission is a precursor for something even greater:

    Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars — or if the planet can sustain life in the future,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030’s, and today’s landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal.”

    As you can imagine, the landing was a great moment for those involved:

    Yeah, science!

    [All images courtesy NASA, JPL]

  • NASA Enlists SpaceX To Send Americans Back To Space

    NASA Enlists SpaceX To Send Americans Back To Space

    SpaceX is doing it. The company created by PayPal/Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk, is going to send people into space.

    The company became the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station in May, and now NASA has chosen SpaceX (via a $440 million contract) to complete final modifications to prepare its Dragon spacecraft for human transport.

    “This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration,” said Musk. “SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”

    Modifications that SpaceX will make to Dragon, include making room for 7 astronauts, a “breakthrough” propulsive landing system for gental ground touchdowns on legs, refinements/testing of “essential aspects” of the craft’s design (such as life support systems and an advanced cockpit design), and what the company calls “the most technically advanced launch escape system ever developed”. That system would include “powered abort possibilities from launch pad to orbit.”

    The company expects its first manned flight to happen in 2015.

    NASA has also reached agreements with Sierra Nevada and Boeing as part of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which has the goal of making commercial human spaceflight available. The deal with Sierra Nevada is for $212.5 million, and the Boeing deal is worth $460 million.

  • Google Street View Goes To “The Doorway To Outer Space”

    Google has partnered with NASA to give web users a closer look at Kennedy Space Center from their computers and mobile devices. Google says it will give people around the world a chance to take a trip to the “doorway to outer space, and see Kennedy as it transitions into a multipurpose launch complex for the next 50 years of space innovation.”

    Kennedy is providing the largest special collection of Street View imagery in all of Google’s endeavors. It includes 6,000 panoramic views.

    Check out some of these shots:

    The Space Shuttle Launch Pad

    Space Shuttle Launch Pad

    Vehicle Assembly Building

    Vehicle Assembly Building

    A Launch Firing Room (#4)

    Launch Firing Room

    Top Of Launch Pad

    Space Shuttle Engine

  • Sally Ride, America’s First Woman in Space, Dies at 61

    Human space flight has always captivated the minds of the public, especially ever since man ventured into space; however, when a woman first traveled up into space (alongside man), the way we observed space travel was changed forever. The woman who took responsibility for being the first American woman in space was Sally Ride.

    Sally Ride, a 32 year-old English and Physics graduate from Stanford University, was accepted into the space program at NASA after responding to a newspaper advertisement from the well-known space agency (Source: Nasa.gov). Ride then assisted as Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for various space shuttle flights, and also assisted with the shuttle’s robotic arm.

    Ride’s first venture into space was on the Challenger in 1983, making her the first American woman to travel into space via NASA. Unfortunately, she was not the actual first woman in space. Two Russian women (Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya) traveled into space prior to her assignment with NASA.

    Recently, Ride was involved with a long battle of pancreatic cancer, and then lost her fight on July 23rd, 2012, at 61 years of age. NASA posted the following tweet regarding her passing:


    Various celebrities and fans of Sally Ride tweeted their respects to America’s first woman in space:







  • NASA And Craig Technologies Sign 5 Year Space Act Agreement

    Today it was announced that NASA and Craig Technologies have signed a five-year, non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement which will have NASA loaning 1,600 pieces of space shuttle era equipment to Craig Technologies. The agreement will have Craig Technologies maintain an inventory of unique processing and manufacturing equipment for future mission support at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    “This is an innovative way to ensure that space shuttle era technology and tools are reused for other hi-tech, private sector purposes along the Space Coast,” said David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of Communications.”This is all part of NASA’s plan to support the transition to the next era of exploration, creating good-paying American jobs and keeping the United States the world leader in space.”

    Craig Technologies will have use of the equipment starting in 2013 when the current partnership between NASA and United Space Alliance ends. The equipment, which is currently being held the NASA Shuttle Logistics Depot in Cape Canaveral, Fla, will be available for Craig to use with 2 restrictions. One being that they can use the equipment until NASA needs to use it. And two, they must store the used equipment within a 50 mile radius of Kennedy Space Center.

    “Kennedy continues to work with the commercial community to find inventive ways to share our unique capabilities,” said Joyce Riquelme, manager of the Kennedy Center Planning and Development Office. “This partnership benefits new customers who will use the equipment now, and keeps it close for our use in future spaceflight projects.”

    NASA has really been focusing on outsourcing the things it does as its budget continually dwindles. This deal, partnered with the deal they struck with SpaceX shows that NASA is capable of moving forward in these rough financial times.

  • Wildfire Images Captured On Nasa Satellite

    The extreme heat and dry conditions across the U.S. haven’t done anything to help firefighters quell the wildfires raging across Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana this week; they were so out of control at one point, they could be seen from space.

    NASA’s Terra satellite happened to cruise over the western part of the country recently and captured images of the fires’ great plumes of grey smoke, which may not look all that impressive from such a distance; however, the fact that they can be seen from space at all is a wonder.

    (image)

    According to NASA:

    The Ash Creek Complex Fire is located in the Custer National Forest in eastern Montana . As of July 2, it had burned 170,000 acres and was 40 percent contained. In Wyoming the Fontenelle Fire and Arapho Fires are evident on the NASA imagery. The smoke from the Fontenelle Fire was blowing in a north-northeasterly direction on the satellite image. This fire has consumed 47,478 acres and according to the U.S. Forest Service it located in Lincoln and Sublette County, Wyoming. The Arapaho Fire has consumed 75,051 acres and is only 5 percent contained, according to inciweb.org.

    Though the fires continue to sweep their devastation across the western states, it’s recently been reported that they are slowly coming under control. However, fire crews will likely have a long and difficult wildfire season ahead of them if the dry heat continues as it has.

  • New Photo of Saturn Shows Just How Freakishly Big It Is

    New Photo of Saturn Shows Just How Freakishly Big It Is

    The big gaseous giant called Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun in our Solar System, is typically remembered because of the multiple rings that encircle the planet. However, it’s also a e-freaking-normous planet. At 95 times more massive than Earth and with a radius 9 times the equatorial radius of Earth, Saturn easily claims the prize of the second-largest planet in the Solar System (behind Jupiter).

    Being that large and in charge, Saturn also boasts a ton of moons. 62 moons, in fact (that we know of, at least). And these moons aren’t just slouchy moons, either. For example, Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is bigger than Mercury, the smallest planet in the Solar System. Saturn has a moon that’s bigger than a recognized planet.

    Given the scale of size that we’re talking about here, it makes the new photo that NASA shared today of Saturn all the more awe-inspiring.

    NASA Saturn Photo

    Click here to see a larger image.

    Captured by the Cassini spacecraft on December 7, 2011, “using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelenghts of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers,” the image shows just how colossal Saturn is when compared to two of its moons, Tethys (right) and Pandora (left). As if Saturn didn’t didn’t already look gargantuan enough, the Cassini spacecraft was approximately 1.3 million miles away from Saturn with the picture was taken. This is the second time in a month that Cassini has put Saturn in the news. Last month, the spacecraft helped scientists discover a “lake” on Saturn’s moon, Titan.

    Seriously. Those two moons look like flecks of crumbs tumbling off the chin of a very corpulent Saturn. In other words, that is one monster planet.

    [Via NASA’s Official Twitter.]
    Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.