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Tag: NASA

  • John Glenn School Live-Tweets Friendship 7 Mission On 50th Anniversary

    Fifty years ago today, astronaut John Glenn made history by boarding a Mercury space capsule and becoming the first American to orbit the earth. The Friendship 7 made three orbits around the earth in a little less than five hours and was moving at speeds around 17,000 miles per hour (top that, Doc Brown). As if that wasn’t a fever-inducing dose of awesome, due to a problem with the yaw attitude jet that controlled the module’s heading, Glenn had to manually pilot the ship during the second and third orbits.

    @glennschool, the official Twitter account of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, is live-tweeting the event retroactively today, recounting the events of the lift-off as they really happened minute-by-minute this morning fifty years ago. For those interested, you can follow the hashtag #GlenninSpace for updates. Here’s how the lift-off has looked so far:

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    5 minutes to launch. #GlenninSpace 33 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    [PHOTO]: Godspeed, John Glenn – 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. http://t.co/fmiujpiB #GlenninSpace #Glenn50 27 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    Jettison tower is green. Auto Retrojettison is off; Emergency Retrojettison Fuse switch, off; Retrojettison Fuse switch, off. #GlenninSpace 25 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    Zero-g and I feel fine. Capsule is turning around. Oh, that view is tremendous! #GlenninSpace 23 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    Roger, Seven. You have a go, at least 7 orbits. Glenn: Roger. Understand Go for at least 7 orbits. #GlenninSpace 23 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    This is Friendship Seven. Can see clear back; a big cloud pattern way back across toward the Cape. Beautiful sight. #GlenninSpace 23 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @glennschool
    John Glenn School    The horizon is a brilliant, a brilliant blue. I have the mainland in sight at present time coming up on the scope. #GlenninSpace 11 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Fifty years later, and even on Twitter, it’s nearly impossible to read the communication between Glenn and Cape Canaveral and not become overwhelmed with the chill of excitement. The retroactive live-tweets will continue today through 3PM.

    In case you overlooked it in the tweets from @glennschool, here’s the original NASA footage of Glenn leaving earth for bluer skies (if you wanna get to the meat of it, skip to around the 25 minute mark for the countdown):

    Throughout the morning, “John Glenn” was trending on Twitter in the United States as people expressed their awe and admiration of Glenn as well as sharing their favorite links and memories about the mission.

    @NASA
    NASA    Today’s the 50th anniversary of American Hero John Glenn’s spaceflight. But who’s your hero if you’re John Glenn? http://t.co/aixl6NVm 2 hours ago via CoTweet ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @AngryBirds
    Angry Birds    Before Angry Birds Space, we had John Glenn: http://t.co/dYb9WuFL – happy 50th anniversary, John! cc @NASA 1 hour ago via CoTweet ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @airandspaceCOMM
    airandspaceCOMM    John Glenn peers inside his Mercury Friendship 7 space capsule http://t.co/nnMTe9Ib via @washingtonpost 1 hour ago via bitly ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @ourhonordefend
    Vico    Favorite John Glenn story is still him at a Wendy Kopp talk in ’02. He and his wife were invited on stage. He hopped the steps to the stage. 3 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @timstahmer
    Tim Stahmer    Today is 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s earth orbit flight http://t.co/JRKb8JmV We don’t do bold things like that any more. 3 minutes ago via Twitter for Mac ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @ourhonordefend
    Vico    John Glenn should get more credit for winning the Cold War. “Don’t make us send John Glenn over there” was a more credible threat than M.A.D 2 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @MyMoonLPI
    MyMoon    Look at what John Glenn went through 50 years ago today to be the first American to launch into space! Would you… http://t.co/cZ6Bpun1 36 minutes ago via Facebook ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @cosmos4u
    Daniel Fischer    This very MINUTE exactly 50 years ago John Glenn lifted off: http://t.co/M5mHVlLn, http://t.co/Vh50b2Ii, http://t.co/tgzuCV7p. 37 minutes ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @neiltyson
    Neil deGrasse Tyson    Feb 20, 1962: USA launches John Glenn into orbit. He followed Russian Dogs, GuineaPigs, Mice, a cosmonaut & an American chimp 36 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @LEEFUCHEN
    LEEFUCHEN    John Glenn and His Historic Space Flight — 50 Years Later: Why a very short space flight still matters today http://t.co/Ps8zsVj1 37 minutes ago via twitterfeed ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @BrentGooden
    Brent Gooden    John Glenn is a true American hero. Followed the Mercury program and cheered for all of them as a kid. NASA always sent great stuff. 38 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @varite
    Heather Wills    Not only do I get to share my bday with #PresidentsDay, it’s also John Glenn Friendship 7 Day! Read more here- https://t.co/td10b8kf 39 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @4yoursonly
    4yoursonly    @TomDignanSr I’ll never forget that wild ride by John Glenn. Saw Friendship7 in Houston. Tiny little thing. Must have been claustrophobic. 36 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @DavidPepper
    David Pepper    50 years ago this minute, John Glenn, from Cambridge OH, blasted off in Friendship 7. Thanks to him and Annie for inspiring our country. 36 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry® ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    As a footnote, if you really want to feel the goosebumps as you read about John Glenn this morning and afternoon, go listen to Peter Schilling’s ‘Major Tom (Coming Home)‘ as you read those @glennschool tweets and watch the NASA footage. It’s an exquisite combination.

  • Obama Cuts Funding for Mars Mission

    Obama Cuts Funding for Mars Mission

    When President Obama laid out his budget on Monday, NASA’s Mars mission plans took a hit. Planetary science budgets were cut by roughly 21%, while more money was allocated to human exploration, space technology and new spacecraft development. The focus has shifted towards new ways of getting men and women into space, while putting the studies on the expansion of the universe and a manned mission to Mars on the backburner. This means the joint U.S.-European venture to Mars is getting cut.

    NASA administrator Charles Bolden states that the new budget “in-sources jobs, creates capabilities here at home, and strengthens our workforce, all while opening the next great chapter in American exploration.” Insourcing takes on a whole new meaning, when jobs are literally being kept on Earth.

    So far, the Obama administration has invested over $1 billion in the private development of new spacecraft, as the old shuttles are becoming science museum antiques, and astronauts are relying on Russia to get into space. Obama’s budget also funds the Space Transport System, a new multistage rocket similiar to the Apollo designs. Bolden said the first flight of a manned commercial vehicle using the Space Transport System would likely launch before 2017. He also states that the first manned mission using the nuclear-propelled Orion system would launch after 2021.

    Not everyone is happy with NASA’s new direction. Bill Nye, the Science Guy, wonders what the point of focusing on new technology might be, when extraterrestrial life is everyone’s most popular question. “I encourage whoever made this decision to ask around; everyone on Earth wants to know if there is life on other worlds,” Nye says. Obama’s plan also allows funding for the James Webb telescope, set to replace the Hubble.

  • CleanSpace One Literally Takes Down Space Junk

    There’s a lot of trash on the earth. That’s why we have people and machines that help clean it up. There’s also a lot of trash in space. There’s nobody cleaning that up – until now.

    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, or EPFL for short, has announced CleanSpace One. It’s a program designed to build numerous satellites dedicated to cleaning up space debris.

    EPFL says that space trash is a growing problem that needs to be addressed now. NASA tracks about 16,000 objects that are considered space trash. When they collide with a satellite, bad things can happen.

    The first launch of the janitor satellite will target one of the two objects currently orbiting around earth – the Swisscube picosatellite launched in 2009 or TIsat that was launched in 2010. Both satellites were made by Swiss citizens.

    EPFL says that CleanSpace One has three technological hurdles to overcome if it is to be successful. If they are able to successfully create this satellite, they will be able to apply these technologies to future inventions.

    After launch, the satellite will use a new ultra-compact motor to align itself with the orbit of the offending space trash. The space trash will be traveling at speeds of 17,000 MPH at an altitude of 466 miles. CleanSpace One will use a grappling arm to grab and stabilize the trash. From there, CleanSpace One will drag the trash down into the atmosphere where they will both burn up upon reentry.

    cleanspaceone

    You would think that making a satellite just to have it end up being destroyed would be expensive. If you were thinking that, you would be right. The maiden voyage is estimated to cost about 10 million Swiss francs or a little over $10 million. The first mission could take place within three to five years depending on funding.

    EPFL hopes to turn CleanSpace One into a business. They want to be pioneers in the field of space custodians. If they want to actually sell these things, they better fix that burning up on reentry part. They hope to make the program as sustainable as possible as companies probably don’t want to spend $10 million to clean up each piece of space trash.

    Here’s a video showcasing the new technology and what it means to be a space janitor:

  • NASA Faces The Biggest Budget Cuts In Four Years

    NASA will be forced to operate on a budget of just over $17 billion next year after being asked to reduce their spending. This is their biggest cut in four years and Bill Nye, CEO of space exploration group, The Planetary Society says it will devastate the group and explains further:

    “Science is the part of NASA that’s actually conducting interesting and scientifically important missions,”

    “Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the Moon, comets, and asteroids have been making incredible discoveries, with more to come from recent launches to Jupiter, the Moon, and Mars.”

    “The country needs more of these robotic space exploration missions, not less.”

    “I encourage whoever made this decision to ask around; everyone on Earth wants to know if there is life on other worlds,”

    “When you cut NASA’s budget in this way, you’re losing sight of why we explore space in the first place.”

    So it appears that the poor economic conditions are beginning to impact all facets of government funding. It makes sense to cut back on lofty space exploration efforts especially during these times. I don’t know how much value American tax payers truly get out of shooting our money into space. Bill Nye seems very enthusiastic about his work, but I believe these cuts make sense. Come on, a $17 billion budget?

  • NASA: Goodbye To Mainframe Computer

    NASA: Goodbye To Mainframe Computer

    NASA is saying goodbye to their last mainframe computer. Marshall Space Flight Center powered down their IBM Z9 last week and ushered in a new era where advanced calculation would no longer rely on the supercomputer. NASA CIO Linda Cureton explains that the high-cost, high-maintanence machine is no longer needed and that calculations can be done with an array of other devices.

    She released the following statement regarding the event at NASA:

    This month marks the end of an era in NASA computing. Marshall Space Flight Center powered down NASA’s last mainframe, the IBM Z9 Mainframe. For my millennial readers, I suppose that I should define what a mainframe is. Well, that’s easier said than done, but here goes — It’s a big computer that is known for being reliable, highly available, secure, and powerful. They are best suited for applications that are more transaction oriented and require a lot of input/output – that is, writing or reading from data storage devices.

    In my first stint at NASA, I was at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center as a mainframe systems programmer when it was still cool. That IBM 360-95 was used to solve complex computational problems for space flight. Back then, I comfortably navigated the world of IBM 360 Assembler language and still remember the much-coveted “green card” that had all the pearls of information about machine code. Back then, real systems programmers did hexadecimal arithmetic – today, “there’s an app for it!”

    But all things must change. Today, they are the size of a refrigerator but in the old days, they were the size of a Cape Cod. Even though NASA has shut down its last one, there is still a requirement for mainframe capability in many other organizations.

  • Solar Flares Are The Greatest Threat To The Internet

    Solar Flares Are The Greatest Threat To The Internet

    What’s the worst possible thing that could happen in 2012? It’s definitely not the apocalypse.

    Michio Kaku took to bigthink to address the doomsday prophecies for this year. He discredits any ideas that suggest there will be comet impacts or planet alignments. He does, however, say that a solar flare would cause unimaginable chaos to the world today.

    Now we get solar flares every few years and they never cause much harm. What Kaku warns against is something similar to the Carrington Event.

    The Carrington Event was a famous solar flare that occurred on September 1, 1859. Richard Carrington, one of England’s foremost astronomers, noticed an enormous group of sunspots. As NASA explains, just before dawn of the next day, skies all over planet Earth turned red, green and purple in a massive aurora that could even be seen in tropical environments.

    Telegraph systems went completely haywire. Telegraph operators were shocked and paper in telegraph offices was set on fire. The telegraph systems were disconnected and the solar flare itself began operating the lines.

    This all comes back to the idea that a solar flare on the scale of the Carrington Event could happen in 2012. What would that mean for us? Kaku explains that a solar flare of that magnitude would knock out most of our satellites, telecommunication systems and even the Internet.

    Thankfully, it appears that such a solar flare happening again within our lifetime is unlikely. Whenever the sun ejects solar flares after flipping its magnetic poles every 11 years, the Earth dodges most of the energy due to its small size.

    The chance for another Carrington Event is still possible, however, so NASA and other firms are petitioning for money to upgrade current systems to withstand massive solar flares.

    Oh, and before you ask, the film Knowing is not an accurate representation of solar flares.

  • NASA Puts Out Feelers For Commercial Crews

    NASA has issued a call for industry to submit proposals for the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Initiative.

    In 2010, President Obama proposed a change in how NASA operates. Prior to that, NASA had carried out the task of ferrying materials and personnel back and forth to space, for example to the International Space Station. President Obama proposed that the private sector handle more of those kinds of tasks.

    In this age of financial crisis, austerity programs and budget cutting, NASA has had to rethink its old methods. One of the changes it is undertaking is this effort to blend government-sponsored programs (traditional NASA) with private industry.

    It’s expected that proposals will lead to Space Act Agreements that will help NASA and the U.S. achieve safe, reliable, and cost effective human access to space. NASA expects to make multiple awards this summer, with values ranging from $300 – $500 million.

    NASA’s announcement asks industry to propose a base period of approximately 21 months, running from award through May 2014. The goals of the base period include completing the design of a fully integrated commercial crew transportation system, which consists of the spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground operations, and mission control. In addition, NASA is asking for the proposals to contain optional milestones beyond the base period leading to and culminating in a crewed orbital demonstration flight.

  • Meet The Robot That Eats And Poops To Power Itself

    Meet The Robot That Eats And Poops To Power Itself

    This week in “What has science done?” comes the pooping robot.

    Before you ask, yes, the robot actually does ingest matter and excretes it out. Scientists working at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory invented a robot that powers itself by ingesting food and water, digesting it and then releasing the leftover waste just as a human does.

    “Robots that eat biological fuels could find enough fuel almost anywhere,” John Greenman, a scientist at the laboratory, told SA. “There is organic matter anywhere on Earth — leaves and soil in the forest, or even human waste such as urine and feces.”

    The robot is called EcoBot and has been around since 2003. The first EcoBot fed off of E. coli bacteria that fed on refined sugars. The EcoBot-II used sludge microbes to digest dead flies, prawn shells and rotten apples. The latest model, EcoBot-III, is the robot that dumps the leftover waste it “digests.” If it didn’t do this, the robot would become poisoned by its own waste and stop working.

    The scientists claim that these robots can keep operating for upwards of 30 years as long as they have food to eat.

    The team has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their work. They hope to turn the robots into a machine that can tackle both sanitation and energy needs in poor countries that need it the most.

    NASA is also eyeing the technology for extended space travel. If the robots can survive off of human waste, they would be the perfect companion for astronauts traveling to distant planets like Mars.

    Fortunately for humanity, the robots can only perform tasks in short bursts before needing to recharge again. Once the technology improves, however, we can expect robots to eat everything on the earth in their tireless domination of the human species.

    [Original lead image courtesy of NineInchNachos’ flickr]

  • Antarctic Glacier Creates Mammoth Iceberg

    NASA scientists on their way to Antarctica have discovered a crack in the Pine Island Glacier. This is the first evidence NASA has seen of the crack but say it will inevitably become an enormous iceberg. The section reaches out 30 miles into the Amundsen Sea and interlocks with the continental bedrock below. The pressure of the surrounding water will eventually force it to crack off.

    IceBridge project scientist Michael Studinger explains:

    “We are actually now witnessing how it happens and it’s very exciting for us”

    “It’s part of a natural process but it’s pretty exciting to be here and actually observe it while it happens. To my knowledge, no one has flown a lidar instrument over an actively developing rift such as this.”

    The crack was noticed as they flew over in their DC-8 while doing work on another project to document Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. Using an Airborne Topographic Mapper the team measured the crack to be 18 miles long, 260 feet wide and between 160 to almost 200 feet deep.

    Here’s a NASA video of the Glacier and the crack that has formed:

    John Sonntag, Instrument Team Leader for the expedition explains his excitement:

    “A lot of times when you’re in science, you don’t get a chance to catch the big stories as they happen because you’re not there at the right place at the right time, but this time we were.”

    I wish I had a job like that. The scientist will continue to monitor the area in hopes of catching the transformation of the glacier section into an iceberg. They claim the Pine Island Glacier is the largest source of uncertainty in predicting global sea level change. It’s large and unstable. Interesting!

  • NASA GRAIL: Far Side Of The Moon

    The GRAIL mission consists of two spacecraft, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, which have been placed into orbit around the Moon. As the two GRAILs circle the moon, changes in topography (mountains and valleys) will create fluctuations in gravitational pull resulting in slight movements to and away from each other. The change in velocity created by the movements will be measured and translated into maps which will help scientist gain a better understanding of the moon.

    The the spacecraft are about the size of a washing machine. The measurements they take are very precise, down to a couple microns (fractions of a hair). Each craft is also fitted with two video cameras (MoonKAM’s). The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA.

    The videos created (and the MoonKam cameras) are specifically designed for a public outreach program by NASA. The missions two primary goals are to create lunar thermal imaging maps and to educate the public about the moon. The two GRAIL spacecraft were launched into orbit on September 10, 2011 at 9:08 am.

    The spacecraft took about three and a half months to reach the moon after being launched and spent another 2 months getting synchronized for their gravitational measuring task. The project will take approximately 82 days to complete. NASA will continue to present video from the two GRAIL spacecraft as part of their public education program.

  • Romanian Hacker Sells Secrets

    Romanian Hacker Sells Secrets

    The U.S. Embassy in Bucharest explained to the Associated press yesterday that a 20 year old information technology student has hacked into several Pentagon and NASA servers.

    They claim the attacker:

    “used sophisticated hacking tools to gain unauthorized access to government and commercial systems.”

    The accused person, Razvan Manole Cernaianu, allegedly also attempted to sell the secrets of how to gain access to the servers online. Organized crime prosecutors are cooperating with the FBI and officials at NASA in order to pursue the case.

  • NASA Discovers Alien Interstellar Material

    Star Trek fans will be excited to know that a spacecraft 200,000 miles above the Earth has discovered some material outside of our solar system. NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) observed what scientists are calling interstellar material.

    What was actually discovered is alien particles of helium, oxygen, hydrogen, and neon.

    Assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, David McComas comments on the find:

    “These are important elements to know quantitatively because they are the building blocks of stars, planets, people”.

    “matter outside our solar system doesn’t look like material inside our solar system. It seems to be deficient in oxygen…”

    Researchers say that the lack of oxygen in these particle could indicate that the sun was formed in an area or region with less oxygen than that of its current location.

    A video about the event and NASA’s explorer is available below. It will illuminate the details of the discovery better than I can in this article:

  • NASA Announces Multiplayer Facebook Game

    NASA has announced a launch of a different kind today. The space agency’s first online multiplayer game, Space Race Blast Off, is available on Facebook today. The game tests players knowledge of science, technology, space-related pop culture, NASA’s history, and more. Players compete against up to two competitors in a race to the top of the launch pad. Every question you get right moves you further up. Correct answers earn badges and points (which can be used to buy more badges, as well as other in-game goodies).

    The game is available today on Facebook. NASA hopes to use the game as a too to introduce NASA to a “wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media,” according to David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications.

    Players are presented with multiple choice questions. Correct answers earn 100 points, with a 20 point bonus for answering first. At the end of ten questions, the winner moves on to a bonus round where a correct answer to the final bonus question earns a badge.

    Space Race Blast Off Question

    The game looks like all kinds of fun for NASA fans and space buffs of all ages. Check it out here and let us know what you think in the comments.

  • Newt Gingrich Wants a Moon Base

    Newt Gingrich Wants a Moon Base

    As the political season heats up, the presidential candidates are campaigning harder to earn your vote. All kinds of promises have been made, hands have been shook, and negative ads have been created. Most of the content being the same stuff we’ve heard before. Luckily, Newt Gingrich made things a little more interesting when talking about his plans for America’s space program.

    In short, he wants a moon base and he wants one by the end of his second term as hopeful president.

    Speaking at a rally in Cocoa, FL, Gingrich laid his plans out for the space program, which included some visionary outlooks.

    “By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American.”

    The reason you have to have a bold, large vision is you don’t arouse the American nation with trivial bureaucratic irrational objectives. It gets to the question, do you want to be part of the generation that goes to the moon and Mars, or do you want to have pork?

    It should be noted that Gingrich’s speech was given in an area which relies heavily on the space program to provide people with jobs, and have personal investment in its success. However, Gingrich wasn’t simply pandering to the crowd as he’s mentioned his plans on the national scene as well.

    [Credit: Spaceflightnow]

  • NASA’s U.S. Tree Map: Woody Biomass Density Never Looked So Cool

    NASA is awesome for a variety of reasons, most prominently their role in everything space related. But NASA is also a great source of wonders of the more terrestrial persuasion, as is demonstrated in this new project about trees.

    Key takeaway: If you really love trees, just stay away from the middle of the United States.

    Although most of you probably already knew that little tidbit, I bet you’ve never seen a map of the U.S. based on “woody biomass” before.

    This tree density map, released by NASA, is a product of a collaboration between Josef Kellndorfer and Wayne Walker of the Woods Hole Research Center, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. As a lover of woodlands, I must say, it’s nice to live near the Appalachians. Check it out below:

    The visualization above was created with data from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset. What you’re really seeing is concentrations of organic carbon, which is stored in the trees. More carbon concentration = more trees.

    Here’s how NASA describes the effort:

    Over six years, researchers assembled the national forest map from space-based radar, satellite sensors, computer models, and a massive amount of ground-based data. It is possibly the highest resolution and most detailed view of forest structure and carbon storage ever assembled for any country.

    Forests in the U.S. were mapped down to a scale of 30 meters, or roughly 10 computer display pixels for every hectare of land (4 pixels per acre). They divided the country into 66 mapping zones and ended up mapping 265 million segments of the American land surface. Kellndorfer estimates that their mapping database includes measurements of about five million trees.

    Bonus Takeaway: the tree density map really looks like a population density map of the U.S. Go figure.

  • NASA To Host ‘Tweetup’ With Astronaut Ron Garan

    You will probably never go to outer space, so the next best thing is to get to know somebody who has been to outer space. That’s essentially what NASA is offering Twitter users next month when it will host a Tweetup with astronaut Ron Garan on Valentine’s Day.

    In case you’re unfamiliar with what exactly a Tweetup is, think of it as a real-time Q&A conducted through Twitter. NASA explains that their Tweetup “is an opportunity to meet and speak with Garan, the people behind NASA’S Twitter account and other space-exploration-minded participants.” Garan posted the announcement earlier today to his Twitter account.

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    Looking forward 2 meeting everyone! RT @NASATweetup Come meet @Astro_Ron at the 1st #NASATweetup of 2012 on 2/14 http://t.co/35nWbjNZ 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    If you’re not following any astronauts on your Twitter account, you’ve been missing out on one of the best uses for Twitter. Frequently, when the astronauts are in orbit, they will post incredible pictures to their account while they are up in space. I recommend following at least a few of them because you will never have a more unfiltered glimpse of what Earth and outer space look like than what they’ve shared via Twitter. Here are a few that Garan shared with his followers:

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    Am I upside-down or is the Earth? Pic from our #STS135 spacewalk #NASA http://t.co/1hqiYkIS 93 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    @Astro_Aggie is changing the way us earthlings view our planet. Great snap Mike! #ISS #NASA http://t.co/wYsom9LY 105 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    Sasha, @Astro_Satoshi @Astro_Aggie + I each in our crew quarters on the International Space Station (Nice digs!) http://t.co/YXLIaDt6 110 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    How I spent my last day in #space That’s me in the cupola off the coast of #Australia taking my last of >25K pics http://t.co/wElLl52Z 114 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    Today: Declared end of war in #Iraq Here’s #Baghdad #FromSpace taken 8/12/11 by @Astro_Coastie #USIPIraq #ISS http://t.co/CSCjWwdZ 33 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    What a wonderful city! RT @PC0101 @Astro_Ron was here: #Vienna, at night, as seen #fromspace from aboard the #ISS http://t.co/7VjtKDMB 61 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @Astro_Ron
    Ron Garan    We had a great view of the Moon as we descended to Earth in our Soyuz capsule #NASA http://t.co/2YamFc3S 119 days ago via Twitpic · powered by @socialditto

    If that wasn’t enough to convince you to follow astronauts on social media – and I seriously question your ability to appreciate beauty if it wasn’t – check out Garan’s Google+ account where he has posted several stunning photos of the moon that he took from his time in orbit.

    Back to the NASA Tweetup: check out the video on NASA Tweetups to hear about one lucky Tweeters experience in a past Tweetup (sorry, NASA’s picky about who shares their videos and won’t let others embed it, but go check it out anyways). One caveat, Twitterers: you must register on the Tweetup page and, even then, participants will be randomly selected from those who have signed up.

  • NASA’s Code Laid Bare

    NASA’s Code Laid Bare

    NASA’s code has now gone open source – cue homebrew rocket ships.

    Open source development is a great thing. With NASA opening a new open source software-dedicated Web site, it allows street coders to access and improve the source code that NASA is working on. This can lead to new discoveries that the professional engineers at NASA could possibly never think of.

    In 2009, the White House issued the Open Government Directive, which required federal agencies to achieve milestones while keeping their business transparent. NASA’s plan has been one of the best. They were even among those who received awards for going above and beyond hte call of duty in the “Participation and Collaboration” and “Flagship Initiatives” categories of the Open Government Directive.

    “The site represents a natural extension of NASA’s efforts to inform, educate and include the public in our mission to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research,” Deborah Diaz, NASA’s Deputy Chief Information Officer, said. “Citizen involvement in our work is a critical component of our success.”

    NASA Open Government launched the Web site as part of its Open Source Software Flagship Initiative. The goal is to showcase existing projects, provide a forum for discussion and guiding internal and external groups in open development, release and contribution.

    “We released the site on January 4 and since have received an overwhelming response from people interested in using our code,” Nick Skytland, Program Manager of NASA’s Open Government Initiative, said. “Our goal is to provide the public direct and ongoing access to NASA technology.”

    William Eshagh, NASA Open Government co-lead on the project at NASA’s Ames Research Center believes that the future of their space program will be built in the open with the help of the public working on their open source code.

    For those who want to take a crack at NASA’s code, you can check it out here.

  • An Asteroid Almost Ended Your Life Yesterday

    While you were going about your daily business, maybe sitting in traffic or making dinner, a giant asteroid whizzed by your head, and you narrowly escaped the cold bite of death.

    Ok, when I say “whizzed by your head” I mean about 202,000 miles away and when I say “narrowly escaped death” I mean that NASA scientists knew that it would miss us all along. But hey, a huge space rock flew past Earth last night? Pretty awesome, right?

    And it’s even cooler when you discover just how close 202,000 miles really is in the grand scheme of things. For instance, the average distance between the Earth and the Moon is 239,000. So this asteroid, tagged as the size of an aircraft carrier, came between us and the Moon. It passed by Earth at its closest point around 6:30 EST.

    That’s the closest that an asteroid that large has come to Earth in 35 years.

    The particular asteroid, 2005 YU55, is in an orbit that regularly brings it near Earth, as well as Venus and Mars. But it hasn’t been this close in at least 200 years.

    This time, NASA scientists were able to bounce radar off the asteroid to give us an image equivalent to a “celestial sonogram.”

    During tracking, scientists will use the Goldstone and Arecibo antennas to bounce radio waves off the space rock. Radar echoes returned from 2005 YU55 will be collected and analyzed. NASA scientists hope to obtain images of the asteroid from Goldstone as fine as about 7 feet (2 meters) per pixel. This should reveal a wealth of detail about the asteroid’s surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical properties

    They were able to capture this photo on Monday, and more detailed images are likely to emerge:

    The image shows a fairly spherical asteroid – a shape that not all asteroids takes. For instance, the 1999 JMB asteroid captured in 1999 was an asymmetrical, oddly shaped object.

    Here’s a visual representation of how close YU55 came on Tuesday, courtesy of NASA:

    So this asteroid didn’t send us humans the way of the dinosaurs. It is a reminder, however, that there’s a ton of stuff floating around out there, any and all of which could possibly smack into our sweet little home.

    The 2005 YU55 will pass close to Earth again in 2028.

    [Image Courtesy IMDB]

  • NASA Tweetup Wants To Give You Access To The Mars Curiosity Rover Launch

    Do you follow @NASA on Twitter? If you don’t, you should, because followers of NASA are about to get the chance to hang around Kennedy Space Center and hobnob with all the awesome NASA people on November 23rd-25th.

    Oh, and at the end of that you’ll get a front row seat at the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover. That rover will be investigating a certain area of Mars to check whether or not it ever offered “conditions favorable for microbial life” and if so, whether or not the area could have preserved evidence of that life.

    NASA is selecting 150 lucky people to come to Florida for a “tweetup,” a meetup organized via Twitter. To register, you have to be a registered Twitter user and you also have to follow @NASA or @NASATweetup (or other NASA Twitter accounts).

    NASA is no stranger to Tweetups, having organized many in the past. Previous tweetups have brought people to see shuttle launches, The World Science Festival as well as the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

    Registration for this experience will open at noon on Wednesday, October 5th and run until noon on Friday, October 7th. NASA will select the 150 people randomly from all the signups. Everyone else gets put on a waiting list. You can register even if you aren’t a U.S. citizen, but spots are for you and you alone. No plus 1’s and they are non-transferable.

    @NASA
    NASA    Would you like to see @MarsCuriosity launch? We’ve got a #NASATweetup for that: http://t.co/CqwPANVH 18 hours ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    You can follow the contest on the @NASA or @NASATweetup accounts and with the hashtag #NASATweeup. NASA says they hope to announce the winners by October 12th.

    If selected, you’re going to have to find your own way there, however. But the VIP 3-day NASA experience should be enough motivation for that. If all goes according to plan, the Curiosity rover will launch at 10:21 am EST on November 25th.

  • UARS Satellite Is Big On the Internet

    UARS Satellite Is Big On the Internet

    Now that the season has changed to fall, most thoughts turn to leaves changing color and falling off of their trees. However, thanks to the UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) vehicle and its return to Earth, for the next little while, we should also watch for falling pieces of satellite as well as red/orange leaves that moved on for the upcoming season of colder temperatures.

    By now, you’ve probably heard mention of the UARS and its destructive return to Earth, as the satellite breaks apart as it reenters the Earth’s atmosphere. Jokes about metal showers and raining bits of satellite are all over the media’s trend cycle, but is this much ado about nothing? While a sense of impending “oh no, the UARS is gonna fall on me” may be over doing it, it’s good to be aware of potential dangers, especially when they come from above.

    A good indicator of UARS’ popularity comes from Google Trends, which shows searches have indeed increased as UARS became more and more topical:

    UARS Trend

    As they are wont to do, NASA has been front and center with their coverage of the UARS’ return to Earth. So much so, in fact, they’ve set up an update page with it own RSS feed, their Twitter feed is active with UARS updates, there’s a page containing history of the vehicle, an FAQ discussing debris reentry, and other pertinent information, like so:

    As of 10:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 100 miles by 105 miles (160 km by 170 km). Re-entry is expected late Friday, Sept. 23, or early Saturday, Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time. Solar activity is no longer the major factor in the satellite’s rate of descent. The satellite’s orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent. There is a low probability any debris that survives re-entry will land in the United States, but the possibility cannot be discounted because of this changing rate of descent. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 12 to 18 hours.

    Besides NASA’s normal quality coverage, there are other entities that are non-NASA related that are also providing coverage, like the UARS Reentry Twitter account, which offers entries like the following:

    @UARS_Reentry
    UARS Reentry    #UARS Fri 23 Sep 2011 18:00UT orbit 87.71 mins
    154.7 x 161.7km
    Position 24.3N,8.8E alt=158.6km Lit [0.24d] ~Reentry-9.3h 39 minutes ago via UARS · powered by @socialditto

    Speaking of Twitter, the #UARS hashtag produces a number of replies, some of them entertaining and some of them informative:

    @NASA
    NASA    The chances that you (yes, I mean YOU) will be hit by a piece of the #UARS satellite today are one in several trillion. Very unlikely. 6 hours ago via CoTweet · powered by @socialditto

    And:

    @VirtualAstro
    Virtual Astronomer    Remember when crossing the road after the pub, or other evening entertainment tonight. Look left, look right and look up! #UARS 56 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    There’s also a number of videos concerning UARS, and the following does a great job of detailing what happens when the satellite reenters our airspace:


    While there is a lot of content surrounding the UARS vehicle available, if you’re really worried about getting nailed by a smoldering piece of UARS debris, your best bet would be to pay attention to everything NASA posts. If there is any danger or cause for concern, it’s a safe bet NASA will be one of first entities to inform the masses. With all of that in mind, be sure and watch out for falling satellite debris as you’re making your way around this evening.

    Lead image courtesy of NASA.

  • 9/11 Attacks, Ground Zero As Captured From Space

    9/11 Attacks, Ground Zero As Captured From Space

    On September 11th, 2001, Astronaut Frank Culbertson was the only American not on the planet Earth. He was aboard the International Space Station, the only American on the crew.

    He happened to be flying over the New York City area when the World Trade Center attack went down, and he decided to document the events from above. The result is some amazing photo and video documentation of what it all looked like from miles away.

    NASA has put some of those photos on their site as part of a NASA Remembers September 11th tribute. The photo you see in the lead image was taken by Culbertson on the morning of 9/11. What you see is the smoke and debris rising up from ground zero, a truly heartbreaking and amazing sight.

    Culbertson also documented his thoughts about witnessing 9/11 from space in a public letter, which NASA has posted in its entirety on their site. Here’s an excerpt from what he wrote on September 11th, 2001 –

    The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible…

    And this is from the very next day –

    It’s horrible to see smoke pouring from wounds in your own country from such a fantastic vantage point. The dichotomy of being on a spacecraft dedicated to improving life on the earth and watching life being destroyed by such willful, terrible acts is jolting to the psyche, no matter who you are. And the knowledge that everything will be different than when we launched by the time we land is a little disconcerting. I have confidence in our country and in our leadership that we will do everything possible to better defend her and our families, and to bring justice for what has been done.

    Culbertson talks about the experience in this NASA video. In it, you also get glimpses of the video that he recorded from the ISS on 9/11.

    NASA captured other photos from high above NYC. This photo was taken the day after, by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) aboard the Landsat satellite –

    “Other than the emotional impact of our country being attacked and thousands of our citizens and maybe some friends being killed, the most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation,” said astronaut Culbertson on 9/11.

    I can’t even imagine what that felt like, seeing it all unfold from space.