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Tag: NASA

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Successfully Surmounted a Sand Dune

    Mars Rover Curiosity Successfully Surmounted a Sand Dune

    NASA this week revealed that Mars rover Curiosity has successfully crossed over a Martian sand dune and is now continuing on its way. The rover drove a total of 41.1 meters on Sunday, February 9. This puts Curiosity’s total distance traveled on Mars just shy of the 5 kilometer milestone at 4.97 kilometers.

    Curiosity had crossed over a small, 1 meter high sand dune on February 6. The event was significant for the rover because it puts the vehicle on a flat surface relatively free of sharp rocks for its journey to a site called KMS-9. Once there the rover will drill into selected rocks to obtain powder samples.

    The Mars Science Laboratory team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) took a long pause at the end of January to research the area past the dune. Satellite images had shown the area to be flat and clear, but the team took the time to image the landscape with the rover to be safe.

    The team is being extra-careful of the surfaces that Curiosity traverses after an inspection of the rover’s wheels in December found that damage to the wheels has accelerated in recent months. Sharp rocks are being avoided, if possible, since they could increase the damage to the wheels.

    Curiosity is currently on a months-long journey to the base of a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. Along the way the rover is stopping at checkpoints and interesting scientific targets, taking samples that can be compared to those first gathered near the rover’s landing site.

    Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • NASA, CNES Team Up For Mars Lander Project

    NASA, CNES Team Up For Mars Lander Project

    This week NASA and the Centre national d’études spatiales (the French space agency, CNES) signed an agreement to work towards a future Mars lander set to launch in 2016.

    The mission is known as the Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The goal of the project is to

    The InSight mission is currently scheduled to launch in March 2016. After arriving at Mars half a year later a lander will be deployed to the red planet’s surface. Once there, the lander will use a tool known as the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to study the interior of Mars.

    The SEIS instrument is capable of measuring tectonic activity and meteorite impacts on Mars. Researchers hope the data gathered by the lander will help inform research into how rocky planets first form.

    “This new agreement strengthens the partnership between NASA and CNES in planetary science research, and builds on more than 20 years of cooperation with CNES on Mars exploration,” said Charles Bolden, NASA administrator. “The research generated by this collaborative mission will give our agencies more information about the early formation of Mars, which will help us understand more about how Earth evolved.”

    NASA is the latest agency to sign on for the SEIS project. The German Aerospace Center, the UK Space Agency, the Swiss Space Office, and the ESA all have a hand in the project, and the InSight mission includes researchers from all over Europe, North America, and Japan.

    Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • NASA Is Now Trying To 3D Print Wood

    NASA Is Now Trying To 3D Print Wood

    For the past year, the big story in 3D printing has been researchers trying to create living materials through the 3D printing of cells. Companies like Organovo are on the cusp of creating working organs with 3D printers, and other researchers are already dabbling with 3D printed meat. While all of that is very exciting, researchers are now looking to 3D printers for the creation of non-living biomaterials.

    TechCrunch reports that two Stanford University researchers – Lynn Rothschild and Diana Gentry – are attempting to 3D print wood. To be more specific, they are wanting to help NASA grow trees in space. Wood isn’t the only thing in their sights either as the two believe their research may yield the ability to print other non-living organic matter, like bone and tooth enamel.

    Here’s how Rothschild described it to TechCrunch:

    “Cells produce an enormous array of products on the Earth, everything from wool to silk to rubber to cellulose, you name it, not to mention meat and plant products and the things that we eat. Many of these things are excreted (from cells). So you’re not going to take a cow or a sheep or a probably not a silk worm or a tree to Mars. But you might want to have a very fine veneer of either silk or wood. So instead of taking the whole organism and trying to make something, why couldn’t you do this all in a very precise way – which actually may be a better way to do it on Earth as well – so that you’re printing an array of cells that then can secrete or produce these products?”

    This isn’t the first time NASA has dabbled in 3D printing. The space agency is already using the technology to produce food and rocket parts. This is probably the most advanced use of 3D printing seen at the space agency though and it probably won’t be ready for quite a while, unlike the aforementioned food and rocket printers that are already producing tangible results.

    Still, it’s another major step forward for a technology that has been, until a few years ago, used exclusively for manufacturing and prototyping. With 3D printers, researchers now have an inexpensive way to manipulate cell structures. Just as some want to spare cows by 3D printing meat, we may one day spare trees by 3D printing wood.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • “Wobbly” Planet Spotted in Binary Star System

    “Wobbly” Planet Spotted in Binary Star System

    NASA this week revealed that the Kepler Space Telescope has spotted a planet with a very erratic orbit. The planet, named Kepler-413b, orbits around a pair of stars and performs what astronomers are describing as a wobble as its spins.

    The planet’s binary system is located 2,300 light-years from our system and contains two dwarf stars, one orange and one red. Kepler-413b orbits the stars at an angle slightly shifted (2.5 degrees) from the plane of its stars’ orbits. Viewed from the side-on it would appear that the planet moves up and down constantly while revolving around its stars every 66 days. Meanwhile, the planet is processing rapidly, with its spin axis tilting by as much as 30 degrees over 11 years.

    “Looking at the Kepler data over the course of 1,500 days, we saw three transits in the first 180 days — one transit every 66 days — then we had 800 days with no transits at all,” said Veselin Kostov, principal investigator of the phenomenon and an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University. “After that, we saw five more transits in a row.”

    The reason for Kepler-413b’s tilted orbit is still eluding astronomers. Hypotheses for the phenomenon include the interference of other planets in the system or a third star that is influencing its orbit.

    According to astronomers, Kepler-413b would be wholly unsuitable for life as we know it. The planet’s erratic orbit would mean rapid shifts in seasons. In addition, the planet is a gas giant 65 times the mass of Earth that orbits its stars so closely that liquid water cannot exist on it.

    “Presumably there are planets out there like this one that we’re not seeing because we’re in the unfavorable period,” said Peter McCullough, a colleague of Veselin’s at the Space Telescope Science Institute. “And that’s one of the things that Veselin is researching: Is there a silent majority of things that we’re not seeing?”

    Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • NASA Crowdsources WISE Data Mining

    NASA Crowdsources WISE Data Mining

    NASA this week announced a new website, DiskDetective.org. The website allows visitors to help NASA researchers cull through data to help uncover young systems that could one day spawn planets.

    “Through Disk Detective, volunteers will help the astronomical community discover new planetary nurseries that will become future targets for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope,” said James Garvin, chief scientist for the Sciences and Exploration Directorate at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

    The images on the Disk Detective website come from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. From 2010 to 2011 the WISE spacecraft conducted a comprehensive survey of the sky at infrared wavelengths, imaging more than 745 million objects.

    Now, the Disk Detective website will allow everyone to help sort these objects by category. What astronomers are looking for are bright objects that appear to be planetary systems in-utero. With millions of candidates to sort through and computer techniques insufficient they are relying on the eyes of volunteers to crowdsource the research and find targets for future observations.

    “Planets form and grow within disks of gas, dust and icy grains that surround young stars, but many details about the process still elude us,” said Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist Goddard. “We need more examples of planet-forming habitats to better understand how planets grow and mature.”

    According to NASA, the Disk Detective project is another in a new commitment by the U.S. government to open data and crowdsourcing. NASA has used crowdsourcing to forward scientific research in the past. Most notably the agency set up a crowdsourcing effort to help with the classification of interstellar clouds.

    Image via NASA

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Has Now Driven Over 3 Miles

    Mars Rover Curiosity Has Now Driven Over 3 Miles

    Following a few hiccups and a software upgrade during the holiday season, Mars rover Curiosity is now back to doing what it does best.

    NASA today revealed that Curiosity is currently on its way to drill another rock sample. The rover is currently stopped at an area named Dingo Gap so that researchers can determine an optimal route over a small Martian sand dune. The agency also revealed that the rover has driven 3.04 miles since landing on Mars.

    The Curiosity team is now attempting to find a path that reduces risk to the rover’s wheels from sharp rocks. After having Curiosity take pictures of its own wheels late last year, researchers found that damage to the rover’s wheels has accelerated in recent months. The decision over whether or not to cross the 3 feet-high dune is now being debated with the risk to Curiosity’s wheels in mind.

    “The decision hasn’t been made yet, but it is prudent to go check,” said Jim Erickson, project manager for Curiosity at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “We’ll take a peek over the dune into the valley immediately to the west to see whether the terrain looks as good as the analysis of orbital images implies.”

    Curiosity is still on a months-long journey to the base of a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. There researcher hope to study multiple exposed layers of rock to help determine what Mars may have been like in the past. In the meantime, once over or around the dune Curiosity will attempt to drill a rock at a site named KMS-9.

    “This area is appealing because we can see terrain units unlike any that Curiosity has visited so far,” said Katie Stack, a Curiosity science team collaborator at the California Institute of Technology. “One unit has striations all oriented in a similar direction. Another is smooth, without striations. We don’t know yet what they are. The big draw is exploration and seeing new things.”

    Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

  • Here’s A Better Look At NASA’s 3D Pizza Printer

    Here’s A Better Look At NASA’s 3D Pizza Printer

    NASA wants to send a few brave men and women to Mars in the future. To do that, they’re going to need to stock up on supplies for the estimated 250 day trip. Despite my love for dehydrated ice cream, it’s unlikely that astronauts could survive on the flavored styrofoam for the full trip. That’s where 3D printers come in.

    Last year, NASA announced that it was investing a hefty chunk of change into 3D printers. The plastic extruding 3D printers that we all know and love are already set to make a trip to space in 2014 for testing. NASA believes that 3D printers can help astronauts quickly repair simple objects on the space station instead of having to wait for a costly resupply.

    While printing small plastic objects would no doubt help astronauts on their way to Mars, food is far more important. That’s why NASA is also investing in a 3D food printer that can create mini pizzas by extruding dough, sauce and cheese onto a heated bed. We got a limited look at the printer last year, but a new video gives us an even closer look at the printing process:

    Anjan Contractor – the man behind the printer – shared a picture of what the pizza looks like after being baked for 70 seconds:

    Here's NASA's 3D Pizza Printer In Action

    I’ve had enough microwavable pizza in my time to know that this is already a better product. Don’t expect to see 3D printed pizzas in your home anytime soon though as the product still hasn’t been submitted to the FDA. Don’t expect it to be for a while either as the team is still likely working with NASA to make sure it’s completely safe for human consumption.

    [h/t: io9]
    Image via Anjan Contractor/YouTube

  • 2013 Temperatures Tie For Seventh Warmest

    2013 Temperatures Tie For Seventh Warmest

    Though much of the U.S. is currently experiencing cold temperatures and snow, it turns out that the previous year has easily made it into the top 10 warmest years since 1880.

    NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) today released a report showing that average global surface temperatures in 2013 were 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit. That temperature ties 2009 and 2006 for the seventh-warmest year on record since 1880.

    According to NASA last year’s temperatures are 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the mid-20th century baseline that climate scientists use as a comparison to current temperatures. GISS researchers believe that future decades will each be warmer than the last, and pointed out that nine of the warmest years on record since 1880 have occurred since the year 2000.

    “Long-term trends in surface temperatures are unusual and 2013 adds to the evidence for ongoing climate change,” said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at GISS. “While one year or one season can be affected by random weather events, this analysis shows the necessity for continued, long-term monitoring.”

    Though individual years and weather patterns may cause temperatures to fluctuate from year-to-year and across the globe, NASA emphasized that 2013 fits well within the currently observed pattern of a long-term rise in global temperatures. According to GISS, the U.S. experienced relatively mild temperatures during 2013, with average temperatures only the 42nd warmest for the country since 1880. In contrast, Australia suffered its hottest year ever since that time during 2013.

  • Challenger Disaster: New Photos Discovered

    Challenger Disaster: New Photos Discovered

    Nearly 28 years ago, the disastrous Challenger space mission touched the lives of people across the globe, as billions watched the coverage of the launch on live television. The horrific event was terminated quickly when the craft exploded shortly upon take-off.

    Unfortunately, one of the main reasons so many were forever affected is due to the tragic loss of seven lives that morning, when all of the Challenger‘s crew members were killed, barely a minute into their flight.

    One of the many lives touched that day was that of a student watching the live coverage with his classmates at school: fourth-grader Michael Hindes.

    Hindes, whose grandfather Bill Rendle had worked for NASA, recently stumbled upon several ground-breaking pictures in his grandfather’s Quincy, Massachusetts attic. Included in those pictures were some of the actual moment of explosion during the launch of the Challenger.

    Those 26 photographs would soon become the first to ever be published of the aircraft’s entire launch, and subsequent end, clearly depicting both the launch and takeoff, and ending with the tragic images of flames and smoke.

    Around 11:40 a.m. EST on January 28, 1986, billions of people around the world watched in horror as the Challenger spacecraft prepared for a launch into space, ending abruptly as the aircraft exploded 73 seconds into its takeoff from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

    A leak in one of the two Solid Rocket Boosters – which ignited the shuttle’s main liquid fuel tank – caused the explosion of the STS-51-L, ending the lives of seven people aboard the rocket, including an Air Force test pilot, electrical engineer, and a teacher.

    The Challenger‘s crew consisted of commander Dick Scobee, pilot Michael Smith, three mission specialists: Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, and Ellison Onizuka. The final two crew members were not official employees of the Federal government; fuel expert Gregory Jarvis and teacher Sharon Christa McAuliffe, rounded out the crew for the tragic mission.

    McAuliffe was selected from a pool of 11,000 applicants who were in the education profession, making her the first teacher to ever fly in space. The idea for a teacher to join the crew was borne from NASA’s desire to see an educator communicate live with students from space. The attention and excitement garnered by this is thought to be one of the main factors for the publicity that stemmed from the tragedy.

    Hindes, who was searching through old photographs after his grandmother’s death, was with his family when he pulled the pictures out of an old box. He says when he showed them to his grandfather, Bill Rendle’s face fell upon the realization of what they showed.

    Rendle had come into possession of the photos when he was given them by a fellow NASA employee, soon after the accident. Hindes says his entire family underwent an “overwhelming moment” when he showed them the pictures, before he then posted them on Reddit, igniting a furious storm of interest and comments from the site’s millions of world-wide viewers.

    Hindes says, “I watched this happen live on TV with my class in fourth grade, and anyone who knows what that was like also knows that it’s something that will stick with you forever.”

    Main image courtesy @Yahoo via Twitter.

    Article Images courtesy Americanmustache via Reddit.

  • NASA Looking For Companies to Build Lunar Landers

    NASA Looking For Companies to Build Lunar Landers

    NASA’s commercial spaceflight program has largely been a success for the agency. Both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have now performed successful resupply missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

    With commercial spaceflight a success, NASA is now moving ahead with more commercial space industry partnerships. The agency this week announced that it is now looking for companies that can ferry cargo to the moon.

    NASA is taking proposals on “reliable and cost-effective commercial robotic lunar lander capabilities.” These companies would have to deliver cargo to the moon’s surface, though NASA will also allow “commercial activities” on the moon to take place as long as its scientific missions are not affected.

    This new initiative is part of the NASA’s current goals surrounding asteroid research and a manned mission to Mars. Resources on the moon such as water and oxygen could be used to support future space missions, including President’s Obama’s challenge to send humans to Mars by the 2030s.

    “In recent years, lunar orbiting missions, such as NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, have revealed evidence of water and other volatiles, but to understand the extent and accessibility of these resources, we need to reach the surface and explore up close,” said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA. “Commercial lunar landing capabilities could help prospect for and utilize these resources.”

    The new lunar landers that NASA is envisioning would need to be able to collect lunar samples, deploy geophysical network assets, and search for resources. They would also need to land up to around 1,100 pounds of payload to “various lunar sites.”

    “As NASA pursues an ambitious plan for humans to explore an asteroid and Mars, U.S. industry will create opportunities for NASA to advance new technologies on the moon,” said Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA. “Our strategic investments in the innovations of our commercial partners have brought about successful commercial resupply of the International Space Station, to be followed in the coming years by commercial crew. Lunar CATALYST will help us advance our goals to reach farther destinations.”

  • NASA Made A Robot Monkey Because It Could

    NASA Made A Robot Monkey Because It Could

    NASA has one of the most advanced robotics labs on the planet where the agency builds the next-generation of space faring robots. It’s latest – RoboSimian – is a robot monkey that can get around like the animal it’s based on. That means it can go from bipedal to quadrupedal for more control.

    Here’s the official description from NASA:

    Meet RoboSimian, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s official entry at the DARPA Robotics Challenge in December 2013. Also known as “Clyde,” the robot is is four-footed, but can also stand on two feet. It has four general-purpose limbs and hands capable of both mobility and manipulation. It came in 5th place out of 16 entries. See RoboSimian in action at the disaster-response competition. Challenges includes turning a valve, traversing uneven terrain, clearing debris, opening and passing through doorways.

    Despite being a quadrupedal monkey robot, RoboSimian looks more like a spider when it walks on all four limbs. It’s just a little unsettling. It’s certainly not as terrifying as Petman, but it looks like Boston Dynamic’s cavalcade of terrifying robots may have found themselves an ally in NASA’s Clyde.

    Image via NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/YouTube

  • ‘Hand of God’, Other Wonders Inspire From Space

    ‘Hand of God’, Other Wonders Inspire From Space

    “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

    Right you are Shakespeare.

    The famous words from his play “Hamlet” has never been more true as people gaze with wonder on the image captured by a NASA space telescope, dubbed the “Hand of God”.

    “We don’t know if the hand shape is an optical illusion,” said Hongjun An of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in a statement from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission.

    The NuSTAR space telescope was launched in June 2012 to observe wonders in the heavens.

    The image is actually a pulsar wind nebula, a fancy way to describe a dying star and the cloud of materials left over from the star after it explodes.

    According to NuSTAR, when the particles interact with nearby magnetic fields the particles to seem to glow.

    Humans have always gazed at the heavens and wondered at the marvels to be found there.

    Check out these incredible images of space caught by the Hubble telescope over the past 22 years.

    Image via YouTube

  • NASA Discovers “Hand of God” Via Telescope

    NASA Discovers “Hand of God” Via Telescope

    Space — the final frontier. In space, there are lots of phenomena and many things that not even the best-educated scientists can even answer nor identify; however, space does bring us a lot of interesting images from the various telescopes that we humans have placed up there. An image that has been recently captured by one of NASA’s telescopes has definitely received a lot of attention these past few days — an image depicting the “Hand of God.”

    According to Yahoo News, the image (captured by NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR) of a hand-like appearance was created by an exploding star that ejected a large amount of material in a cloud formation. Yahoo elaborates on the “Hand of God” in a more scientific explanation provided below.

    “The new image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova. What’s left behind is a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a wind of particles into material ejected during the star’s death throes.”

    The various scientists who are currently studying the pulsar wind nebula are unsure if the ejected material forms the shape of a hand, or if the interaction with the particles of the pulsar are just making it appear that way to the eye. Hongjun An, of McGill University in Montreal, stated “We don’t know if the hand shape is an optical illusion. With NuSTAR, the hand looks more like a fist, which is giving us some clues.”

    The “Hand of God” image is an example of pareidolia, which LiveScience.com describes as “the psychological phenomenon that causes some people to see or hear a vague or random image or sound as something significant.” Another form of pareidolia is when a person sees various images and objects in the shapes of clouds.

    Various twitter users have reacted to the “Hand of God” image captured by NASA, and I have provided some of their reactions to this phenomenon below.

    Image via YouTube (0:06)

  • Hubble Spots Cloudy Atmospheres on Two Nearby Exoplanets

    Hubble Spots Cloudy Atmospheres on Two Nearby Exoplanets

    On the eve of a new year, astronomers have just revealed that two nearby exoplanets are covered in an atmosphere thick with clouds.

    Two new papers, both to be published in the journal Nature, examine the planets GJ 436b and GJ 1214b. GJ 436b is located just 36 light-years from our solar system and is thought to be a “warm Neptune” – a gas giant similar to our outer-most planet, but much closer to its sun. GJ 1214b is just 40 light-years away and is dubbed a “super-Earth” for its size and position relative to its star.

    Researchers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to observe these planets as they passed in front of their respective suns. Instead of the revealing chemical spectra that astronomers would normally find as starlight filters through the atmosphere of planets, the studies’ authors instead found spectra with no chemical markers.

    “Either this planet [GJ 436b] has a high cloud layer obscuring the view, or it has a cloud-free atmosphere that is deficient in hydrogen, which would make it very unlike Neptune,” said Heather Knutson, lead on the GJ436b observations and an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology. “Instead of hydrogen, it could have relatively large amounts of heavier molecules such as water vapor, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide, which would compress the atmosphere and make it hard for us to detect any chemical signatures.”

    Follow-up observations of GJ 1214b found evidence that it too had a thick layer of clouds on top of an atmosphere made up of mainly of water vapor or hydrogen. The GJ1214b observations have also ruled out the possibility that the planet’s atmosphere cloudless but dominated by common chemicals such as water vapor, nitrogen, or carbon dioxide.

    “Both planets are telling us something about the diversity of planet types that occur outside of our own solar system; in this case we are discovering we may not know them as well as we thought,” said Knutson. “We’d really like to determine the size at which these planets transition from looking like mini-gas giants to something more like a water world or a rocky, scaled-up version of the Earth. Both of these observations are fundamentally trying to answer that question.”

    Image via NASA/ESA/L. Kreidberg and J. Bean (University of Chicago)/H. Knutson (California Institute of Technology)

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Got a Software Upgrade For Christmas

    Mars Rover Curiosity Got a Software Upgrade For Christmas

    While people on Earth were finishing up their Christmas shopping last week, NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity was receiving its own Christmas gift in the form of new software.

    According to NASA, Curiosity has now received its third software upgrade since landing on Mars over one year ago. The upgrade took about a week to transition the rover to the 11th version of its flight software, which expands the rover’s more capabilities.

    This software upgrade was successful, though the transition was rolled back in November following a failed update. During that upgrade, Curiosity experienced an unexpected reboot into its safe mode. Researchers later determined that the error was caused by file error and soon resumed normal operations while preparing for the December update.

    With the rover’s software up to date, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) team members are also preparing to inspect each of Curiosity’s wheels. The rover will take pictures of its own wheels using its arm. Researchers will be looking at the condition of each wheel to help them plan future jaunts across the red planet’s surface while minimizing damage to the wheels.

    “We want to take a full inventory of the condition of the wheels,” said Jim Erickson, project manager for the MSL Project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Dents and holes were anticipated, but the amount of wear appears to have accelerated in the past month or so. It appears to be correlated with driving over rougher terrain. The wheels can sustain significant damage without impairing the rover’s ability to drive. However, we would like to understand the impact that this terrain type has on the wheels, to help with planning future drives.”

    Curiosity is currently on a months-long journey to the base of a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. Once there, researchers hope to compare exposed layers of rock to the rock formations seen near the rover’s landing site.

    Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech

  • NASA Spacewalk Finishes 1.5 Hours Early

    NASA Spacewalk Finishes 1.5 Hours Early

    Without a doubt, the most awe-inspiring and visually stunning movie of 2013 was Gravity, a movie concerning space starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. In Alfonso Cuarón’s film, both Clooney’s and Bullock’s characters are sent hurtling through space after their spacewalk goes awry following collision from space debris. Luckily for NASA, Saturday’s spacewalk saw none of the complications Clooney and Bullock faced.

    Saturday’s spacewalk was the first of three planned missions to replace a faulty unit on the exterior of the International Space Station. Ten days ago, a flow control valve malfunctioned inside of a pump module which controls the external and internal temperatures of the ISS. After the initial malfunction, NASA attempted to fix the situation from the ground by rerouting the mechanism through a different valve.

    While the solution worked temporarily, the situation was urgent enough that NASA elected to schedule a series of spacewalks to resolve the issue. The urgency to make the repair stems from the fact that the ISS is about to reach the point in the year where it receives the most direct sunlight, which runs from December 30 to January 9 this year. During this time, the ISS must perform barrel rolls (hopefully by tapping Z twice) in order to avoid overheating. Due to these evasive maneuvers, spacewalks and cargo shipments are not permitted, and hence the urgency of the situation.

    Originally, the astronauts were simply supposed to prep the pump module for module. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins were able to finish the prep work in 3 hours, though, and were given permission to actually remove the module with their remaining 3.5 scheduled hours.

    Spacewalk Astronauts

    Leaving the astronauts out much longer than necessary was a potentially difficult decision for NASA, seeing as Hopkins was wearing the same suit which sprung a water leak last June when worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Luckily for NASA and Hopkins, the repairs made to Parmitano’s suit held up and were of no concern.

    The only concern which did occur during the spacewalk had to do with temperature control: “The only issue that I personally am having is it’s very, very cold,” stated Mastracchio. In particular, it was Mastracchio’s toes that were cold. While Houston was able to warm Mastracchio’s little piggies by blowing warm air into his boots, Mastracchio ultimately called it quits 1.5 hours early due to the chilly conditions.

    The situation faced by Mastracchio and Hopkins Saturday was not unique. In 2010, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson performed an almost identical procedure to repair the ISS’s cooling system. Due to their prior experience, Wheelock and Dyson were in Houston aiding Mastracchio and Hopkins during the repair efforts: “It’s a little bit [of] a different failure we’re facing this time around, but the spacewalks to remove the old pump module and replace it with a new spare is exactly the same as what we did in 2010. We’ve had a lot of lessons learned back then, and so we’ve implemented those changes into our procedure in the way that we prepare our suits and our tools, so we’ll be ready to go on Saturday,” stated Wheelock.

    Wheelock also spoke about the familiarity of the situation for Mastracchio and Hopkins, adding, “We practice all of these skills, just rehearse them over and over again in the pool. The crew has done these particular skills. The skills are the same, but space always has surprises for us, especially when we go outside.”

    Space may have had some unusual surprises for Hopkins as this was his first-ever spacewalk. Fortunately, he had an experienced partner to help out. This spacewalk marked Mastracchio’s seventh. His previous 6 spacewalks have totaled 38 hours and 30 minutes, placing him 14th on the lists of astronauts documenting the most hours of spacewalking.

    The next spacewalk is scheduled for Monday, December 23rd, while the third is currently scheduled for Christmas. However, due to currently being ahead of schedule, the third walk may not be necessary. If it does occur, the spacewalk on December 25 will be the first spacewalk to ever occur on Christmas.

    Images via YouTube

  • China Moon Landing: Jade Rabbit Reaches Moon’s Surface

    China Moon Landing: Jade Rabbit Reaches Moon’s Surface

    China made history on Saturday by successfully landing its first unmanned spacecraft on the moon. The Chang’e-3  reached the moon at about 9.12 p.m Saturday and delivered “Yutu”, nicknamed “Jade Rabbit”. Yutu is a solar powered, six-wheeled robotic rover, equipped with at least four cameras and a number of  mechanical devices for sampling and analyzing the moon’s surface.

    On Saturday, Zheng Yong-Chun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced, “Chang’e-3 has been landed successfully on the surface of the moon today”. This means that China becomes only the third country to achieve such a feat after the United States last landed in 1972, and the former Soviet Union in 1976.

    The 1-ton rover will explore the moon’s surface, studying soil samples and rocks for at least three months. The Yutu moon rover is named after a pet rabbit that journeyed to the moon with the Chinese mythological goddess named Chang’e .

    The lander drifted about 100 meters in altitude above the lunar landscape as it searched for a safe landing spot. The spacecraft eventually landed in the Sinus Iridum (known as the Bay of Rainbows) located on the northern hemisphere of the moon.

    The lander also features a scientific gear that can observe the Earth and other celestial objects over the next 12 months. China is also expected to open a permanent space station in the Earth’s orbit, within the next decade.

    Watch the Chinese blast off to the moon

    http://youtu.be/lgZslWEQZHY

    (image via YouTube)

  • Water Vapor Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

    Water Vapor Detected on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

    New research published this week in the journal Science Express has revealed that there is water vapor in the atmosphere of Jupiter‘s moon Europa. The vapor was detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope over the moon’s south pole.

    Though the water vapor has been detected on Europa, the exact cause of the vapor has yet to be determined. The report’s authors believe that the likeliest cause is eruptions of water on the moon’s surface. Scientists have believed for years that Europa has oceans of water underneath its outer crust of ice.

    “By far the simplest explanation for this water vapor is that it erupted from plumes on the surface of Europa,” said Lorenz Roth, lead author of the paper and a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute. “If those plumes are connected with the subsurface water ocean we are confident exists under Europa’s crust, then this means that future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa’s potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice. And that is tremendously exciting.”

    Roth and his colleagues believe that cracks in Europa’s ice crust could be the source of the water vapor. Such a phenomenon has already been seen on the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

    Europa’s water vapor is slightly different in that the vapor action was only detected when the moon was further away from its host planet. This suggests that Jupiter’s gravity is causing large tidal shifts on Europa, which could provide more evidence that Europa has water oceans underneath its surface.

    For now the information on Europa’s water vapor plumes is limited. Researchers were able to detect them only very faintly using Hubble’s imaging spectrograph, which recorded the ultraviolet light that serves as the evidence for water in the moon’s atmosphere.

    “We pushed Hubble to its limits to see this very faint emission. These could be stealth plumes, because they might be tenuous and difficult to observe in the visible light,” said Joachim Saur, co-author of the paper and a planetary scientist at the University of Cologne.

    (Image courtesy NASA/ESA/K. Retherford/SWRI)

  • 6-Year-Old Tries to Save NASA with White House Petition

    6-Year-Old Tries to Save NASA with White House Petition

    With NASA budget cuts looming, one 6-year-old kid is taking as direct a route as he can to ask President Obama to save the nation’s space program.

    Connor Johnson of Denver, Colorado loves space and hopes to be an astronaut one day.

    “The whole reason I want to be an astronaut so I can discover, like, new worlds and discover, like, asteroids or stuff that I could build stuff out of,” he says.

    But he quickly realized that the $10.41 in his piggy bank wasn’t going to make up for the 2014 fiscal year shortfall about to hit NASA, so he decided to petition the White House to increase funding.

    “Increase NASA funding. So we can discover new worlds, protect us from danger and to make dreams come true,” reads the petition. “Increase the funding for NASA so that children can dream of exploring the universe. Science funding is the future of our country.”

    The petition currently boasts about 10,000 signatures, and it needs 90,000 more by December 29th to hit the signature threshold and (hopefully) for an official White House response.

    The White House previously requested $17.7 billion in 2014 funding for NASA, but lawmakers are looking to slash nearly $1 billion from NASA’s budget. As of now, NASA’s exact 2014 funding remains up in the air.

    This kid is cute, and his point is more than valid – we all need the promise of space exploration to make dreams come true – and it’s not like we’re giving NASA anything significant anyway. You lose more money in your couch every week than you give to NASA in taxes. Still, little Connor is just 6 years old, and has yet to fully realize just how futile an exercise posting a petition to the White House’s site really is.

  • Satellites Help Pinpoint the Coldest Spot on Earth

    Satellites Help Pinpoint the Coldest Spot on Earth

    With temperatures in the U.S. plunging this week, researchers have found a way to make the snow-packed streets of the east coast seem like a tropical paradise.

    Scientists at the American Geophysical Union meeting this week in San Francisco unveiled research that has pinpointed the coldest place on Earth. The location is, of course, in Antarctica, on a high ridge in the East Antarctic Plateau. At that location, between sites known as Dome Argus and Dome Fuji, temperatures in local hollows can drop to below -133.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-92 degrees Celsius).

    “We had a suspicion this Antarctic ridge was likely to be extremely cold, and colder than Vostok because it’s higher up the hill,” said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. “With the launch of Landsat 8, we finally had a sensor capable of really investigating this area in more detail.”

    Scambos and his colleagues were able to identify the coldest place on Earth using data from satellites including Landsat 8, which was launched in February by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Using the data researchers were able to develop the most detailed temperature maps of Earth yet created.

    The research has helped weather scientists understand how cold temperatures can get on Earth. It has also revealed details about how those low temperatures are reached on the surface. Researchers found that the surface on the East Antarctic Plateau rapidly drop when the Antarctic sky clears of clouds. The cool, dense air near the ground slides down the ridge and forms pockets of the coldest temperatures on Earth.

    “By causing the air to be stationary for extended periods, while continuing to radiate more heat away into space, you get the absolute lowest temperatures we’re able to find,” said Scambos. “We suspected that we would be looking for one magical site that got extremely cold, but what we found was a large strip of Antarctica at high altitude that regularly reached these record low temperatures.”

    A pair of videos released today by NASA illustrate these concepts, and demonstrates just how inhospitable the coldest place on Earth really is:

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Dates a Rock, Makes Other Discoveries

    Mars Rover Curiosity Dates a Rock, Makes Other Discoveries

    Mars rover Curiosity has been on Mars now for over one year. In that time the rover has performed a variety of science observations, revealing to scientists even more about the surface of the red planet. Today, NASA announced that data collected by curiosity has led to a host of new findings, including six new papers published this week in Science Express.

    The biggest reveal from the research is that Curiosity has helped researchers date a Martian rock. Rocks from Mars have certainly been dated in the past, but never one that was gathered and tested while on the planet itself.

    The rock dated was the one in the “Cumberland” region that Curiosity explored earlier this year. The rock was the second that Curiosity had examined using its drill. Using radiometric and exposure age dating from the rover, researchers are estimating that the rock is somewhere between 3.86 billion and 4.56 billion years old.

    “The age is not surprising, but what is surprising is that this method worked using measurements performed on Mars,” said Kenneth Farley, author of the paper on the rock dating and a geochemist at the California Institute of Technology. “When you’re confirming a new methodology, you don’t want the first result to be something unexpected. Our understanding of the antiquity of the Martian surface seems to be right.”

    In addition to the rock dating, Curiosity has taken the first radiation hazard readings on the Martian surface and detected what might be organic compounds in the Martian soil. The rover has also already completed its primary mission by determining that Mars once had conditions that could have supported some forms of life.

    NASA believes that all of these discoveries will help to set the stage for a future manned mission to mars. In particular, Curiosity’s radiation measurements have raised questions over how much exposure to cosmic rays astronauts sent to Mars might have to endure. NASA is currently working towards the goal of sending a manned mission to Mars by the end of the 2030s.

    “Our measurements provide crucial information for human missions to Mars,” said Don Hassler, the lead author of a report on Curiosity’s radiation measurements and the science program director at the Southwest Research Institute. “We’re continuing to monitor the radiation environment and seeing the effects of major solar storms on the surface at different times in the solar cycle, will give additional important data. Our measurements also tie into Curiosity’s investigations about habitability. The radiation sources that are concerns for human health also affect microbial survival as well as preservation of organic chemicals.”

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)