Story highlights NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has produced vintage-style posters advertising trips to new planets Posters evoke golden age of travel from last century with classic art deco graphics and fonts Actual travel to newly discovered planets is unlikely for now as they're trillions of miles away

It does, after all, have two suns.

OK, so a long weekend visiting a planet 1,200 trillion miles away, may not be a realistic prospect just yet, but that hasn't stopped scientists at NASA from dreaming.

To mark the exciting discovery of a slew of potentially distant habitable worlds by its Kepler space observatory, the U.S. space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology has created a series of posters advertising imaginary vacations to some of them.

Rendered in the retro style of classic travel billboards of the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the posters depict these distant worlds as pleasurable destinations.

The image for Kepler 16-b -- previously compared to the fictional "Star Wars" planet of Tatooine because of its dual suns -- shows a space-suited figure basking in the light from the twin orbs overhead.

"Relax on Kepler 16-b," the poster says. "The land of two suns ... Where your shadow always has company."

Although the planet is depicted as a rocky, terrestrial world, NASA says it could also be a gas giant like Saturn with freezing temperatures that would make it hostile to known lifeforms.

A second poster shows an astronaut free-falling to experience the powerful gravity over HD 40307g, a "Super Earth" 44 light years -- or 264 trillion miles -- away.

Another sunny day on Kepler-16b.

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NASA posters sell vacations on alien worlds

TOKYO Japanese automaker Nissan and NASA are teaming up to advance the technology behind cars that drive autonomously.

Nissan and NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., announced this week a five-year research-and-development partnership for autonomous-vehicle systems so they eventually can be applied to commercially sold cars.

Nissan is excited about the potential of self-driving cars, which executives say could lead to improved safety, a pillar for future autos.

NASA researchers will be working with Nissan's research unit in Silicon Valley, they said in a joint statement.

The maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models aims to introduce autonomous-driving technology to consumers between 2016 and 2020. Ames developed the Mars rover software and robots onboard the International Space Station.

"The partnership brings together the best and brightest of NASA and Nissan, " said Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.

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Nissan and NASA to work on autonomous car technology

The first vehicle in the zero-emission fleet is expected to hit the test track by the end of 2015.

Nissan and NASA have partnered to build an autonomous vehicle.

The car maker and space agency on Thursday announced a five-year R&D alliance between scientists at Nissan's U.S. Silicon Valley Research Center and NASA's Ames Research Center.

The team will focus on autonomous drive systems, human-machine interface solutions, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification, all of which will be aided by technology typically found in road and space travel.

"The work of NASA and Nissanwith one directed to space and the other directed to Earth, is connected by similar challenges," Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a statement. "The partnership will accelerate Nissan's development of safe, secure, and reliable autonomous drive technology that we will progressively introduce to consumers beginning in 2016 up to 2020."

The first vehicle in the zero-emission fleet is expected to hit the test track by the end of 2015. Trials will run similarly to how NASA operates planetary rovers from a mission control center.

By 2020, Nissan hopes to introduce self-driving cars that can navigate "in nearly all situations," including city driving, the company said.

NASA said it will benefit from Nissan's expertise in innovative component technologies and research on the development of vehicular transport applications. The space agency will also gain access to prototype systems and a provision of test beds for robotic software.

"All of our potential topics of research collaboration with Nissan are areas in which Ames has strongly contributed to major NASA programs," Ames Research Center director S. Pete Worden said.

For example, the group developed Mars rover planning software, put robots onboard the International Space Station, and built Next Generation air traffic management systems, "to name a few," Worden boasted.

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Nissan, NASA Team Up for Self-Driving Car Tech

January 9, 2015

John Hopton for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

NASA has announced that it will work on a five-year project with automakers Nissan, to develop and test zero-emission, autonomous cars that they hope will change the face of Earthly driving as well as improving vehicles in space.

The project will be based in Silicon Valley, where Nissans research center in Sunnyvale is a stones throw from NASAs Ames Research Center. NASAs unparalleled level of expertise when it comes to engineering, robotics, and making reliable, durable machines will combine with work Nissan has already begun on creating autonomous vehicles.

While NASAs vehicles have done a remarkable job of negotiating galactic terrains, Nissan can bring their knowledge of taking on the urban environment with quickly-reacting vehicles. NASA may have made it to Mars, but its rovers never had to contend with cyclists, stop signs and pedestrians wandering across the street while playing on their phones.

This is a perfect blend of the capability of what the robotics folks at NASA Ames have and the autonomy that we bring, Nissans Maarten Sierhuis told Wired. Sierhuis is the director of Nissans Silicon Valley research center and also spent ten years as a NASA senior scientist. While NASAs space vehicles demonstrate an astonishing level of technological advancement, they are not entirely autonomous. However, they may need to be more to be more autonomous in future as space exploration expands and the machines become more complex.

The timing is right because we are ready to start testing, Sierhuis added.

NASA can teach automakers a lot about the interaction between man and machine, says Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn. In a statement that encapsulates the magnitude of the project and its ambitions, he says that: When we talk about autonomous drive, were transforming the relationship between the driver and the car from a master to slave, to a kind of partner.

The first stage for the project is to extend the maps Nissan uses in its autonomous driving simulator, which currently cover the immediate area around its research center, to include the Ames campus. The aim then is to have a car on the road by the end of 2015, which can be improved upon over five years.

We gain time, we gain knowledge, we gain expertise, Ghosn says. Thats what the whole thing is aboutmoving as fast as we can.

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NASA, Nissan team up to make self-driving, emission-free vehicles

Provided by Engadget

NASA and Nissan believe they've got a lot to learn from each other when it comes to autonomous vehicle technology. So, the two have decided to team up for the next five years and develop a self-driving system that they can use not just on Earth, but also in space. A team of scientists from both organizations will design an autonomous vehicle technology at the NASA Ames Research Center, home to Moffett Field, where Google is also testing its self-driving auto prototypes. The duo will start by conjuring up a fleet of zero-emission robotic cars, presumably modified Nissan Leafs, as that's exactly what's pictured above. They expect to start test driving the first one by the end of 2015.

Nissan has long been working onself-driving cars, even testing an autonomous Leafon Japanese roads in 2013. But company CEO Carlos Ghosn thinks NASA, which has a great track record building durable space rovers controlled from Earth, can teach the automaker how to create a more reliable human-machine interface. NASA, on the other hand, aims to pick up pointers on how to properly incorporate self-driving technology into vehicles. The agency plans to build autonomous rovers for use in locations farther or more dangerous than Mars.

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NASA and Nissan team up to develop self-driving cars and space rovers

NASA And The Occult
NASA and the Occult. Goes back to things that are believe, but i do now after days of research.

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NASA And The Occult - Video

Breaking News NASA and Scientific Miracles of Islam
http://goo.gl/eKOxac , ! , 5 ...

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Breaking News NASA and Scientific Miracles of Islam - Video

NASA please explain this(UFO)! part2
Dear viewers, I have run this clip through filters and did some colour adjustments to enhance the view, though, it was clearly visible throughout the recording. I really wonder what NASA can...

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NASA please explain this(UFO)! part2 - Video

What Is It Really Like To Live In Space? ft. Astronaut Reid Wiseman
Each month DNews will sit down with NASA to discuss amazing space topics! This month, we will be discussing what it #39;s like in space! How do you train for a mission to space? What are the...

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What Is It Really Like To Live In Space? ft. Astronaut Reid Wiseman - Video

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2014 December 31

Explanation: Comet Lovejoy has become visible to the unaided eye. To see the comet, just go outside an hour or so after sunset and look for a fuzzy patch to the right of Orion's belt. Binoculars and a star chart may help. Pictured here, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was captured three days ago passing nearly in front of M79, the globular star cluster visible as the bright spot slightly above and to the left of the comet's green-hued coma. The nucleus of Comet Lovejoy is a giant dirty iceberg that is shedding gas into a long and intricate ion tail, extending across the image, as it nears the Sun. The comet is expected to become even easier to spot for northern observers during January, as it is rises earlier and, hopefully, continues to brighten.

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APOD: 2014 December 31 - Comet Lovejoy before a Globular ...

Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show.

As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the "substantial" risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agency's concern.

The engines had a "fundamental flaw in the materials," said a top manager for NASA's contracted rocket builder, Orbital Sciences, in a 2013 interview with an agency historian. The Soviet engines were built in the 1960s and 1970s in a failed attempt to take cosmonauts to the moon.

"They were never designed to be in storage that long," said the Orbital manager, Ken Eberly, deputy director for the rocket program.

The explosion, just seconds after liftoff from a Virginia launch pad on Oct. 28, destroyed tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded supplies, experiments and equipment, all bound for the International Space Station. The episode has raised questions about NASA's oversight of a new program to hire private contractors to carry cargo and astronauts to orbit, rather than operate the spacecraft itself.

The program aimed to encourage private industry to develop innovative, safe and reliable spacecraft, and ideally save money. But NASA and Orbital officials knew the decades-old engines posed a danger before the agency awarded the company a $1.9-billion deal to launch eight missions.

The company and NASA tried to address the risk by X-raying the engines to find cracks and patching them with welds.

NASA officials knew before the October explosion that the fix had not worked as well as intended. In May, an overhauled engine exploded during a test at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Under NASA's contract with Orbital, taxpayers shoulder most of the risk of a catastrophe. The company receives as much as 80% of its fee for each launch even if the rocket explodes.

NASA has not said how much the destroyed cargo was worth. The government will also spend up to $20 million to repair damage the explosion caused to the Virginia launch facility, according to legislation approved in December.

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Before explosion, NASA knew aging Soviet engines posed ...

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2015 January 4

Explanation: Soft hues, partially lit orbs, a thin trace of the ring, and slight shadows highlight this understated view of the majestic surroundings of the giant planet Saturn. Looking nearly back toward the Sun, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn captured crescent phases of Saturn and its moon Rhea in color a few years ago. As striking as the above image is, it is but a single frame from a 60-frame silent movie where Rhea can be seen gliding in front of its parent world. Since Cassini was nearly in the plane of Saturn's rings, the normally impressive rings are visible here only as a thin line across the image center.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply. NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC & Michigan Tech. U.

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APOD: 2015 January 4 - Crescent Rhea Occults Crescent Saturn

Nissan and NASA are teaming up to develop autonomous vehicles that will take us across townor across Mars.

The automaker and the space agency announced a five-year partnership today that will see their engineers working together to develop the robo-cars of tomorrow. The R&D effort, much of which will occur in Silicon Valley, could yield technology that will be put to use in passenger vehicles here on Earth and rovers on distant planets.

Nissan and NASA will develop and test zero-emission autonomous cars (modified electric Nissan Leafs, naturally) at NASAs Ames Research Center, which is just up the road from Nissans Silicon Valley research center in Sunnyvale, California.

This is a perfect blend of the capability of what the robotics folks at NASA Ames have and the autonomy that we bring, says Maarten Sierhuis, the director of Nissans Silicon Valley research center, who also spent ten years as a NASA senior scientist. The timing is right because we are ready to start testing the ability to autonomously navigate city streets, which the automaker has pledged to have in cars on the market by 2020, and NASA can help it do that.

Those rovers roaming the Red Planet may not be entirely autonomous, but they have a lot to teach Nissan.NASAs proven its ability to remotely operate vehicles millions of miles from Earth, a feat that requires superlative levels of engineering. NASA has a lot to teach automakers about building remarkably durable and reliable systems, and about the interaction between man and machine, says Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.

Nissan has a lot to teach NASA about autonomous vehicles.The automaker already is testing cars thatcan navigate urban environments on their own. This is one of the toughest challenges facing autonomous vehicles, because cities contain countless variables like pedestrians, cyclists, double-parked trucks, construction and so much more. Developing a system smart enough, and fast enough, to adapt to so chaotic an environment is a Herculean task.

Wandering the surface of a hostile planet, where there may be rocks, sand and other obstacles, is no less challenging, and NASA can piggyback on the work Nissans already doing in autonomous navigation.The more we look at it, the more there are a lot of similarities there, says Pete Worden, director of the Ames Research Center.We have a rover on Mars. It is not very autonomous. As we go deeper into space, into more and more dangerous locations, we need to add that autonomy.

The newly minted partners are starting their work in the digital world. Step one is to extend the maps Nissan uses in its autonomous driving simulator, which now cover the immediate area around its research center, to include the Ames campus. Then plan to have an actual car on the road by the end of 2015, which will help Nissan hit its goal of proving its technology and getting it into production in the next five years.

We gain time, we gain knowledge, we gain expertise, Ghosn says. Thats what the whole thing is aboutmoving as fast as we can.

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NASA and Nissan Join Forces to Build Self-Driving Vehicles for Earth and Space

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered its 1,000th alien planet, further cementing the prolific exoplanet-hunting mission's status as a space-science legend.

Kepler reached the milestone today (Jan. 6) with the announcement of eight newly confirmed exoplanets, bringing the mission's current alien world tally to 1,004. Kepler has found more than half of all knownexoplanetsto date, and the numbers will keep rolling in: The telescope has also spotted 3,200 additional planet candidates, and about 90 percent of them should end up being confirmed, mission scientists say.

Furthermore, a number of these future finds are likely to be small, rocky worlds with temperate, relatively hospitable surface conditions in other worlds, planets a lot like Earth. (In fact, at least two of the newly confirmed eight Kepler planets which were announced in Seattle today during the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society appear to meet that description, mission team members said.) [Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets]

"Kepler was designed to find these Earth analogues, and we always knew that the most interesting results would come at the end,"Kepler missionscientist Natalie Batalha, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, told Space.com last month.

"So we're just kind of ramping up toward those most interesting results," she added. "There's still a lot of good science to come out of Kepler."

Exoplanet science is a young field. The first world beyond our solar system wasn't confirmed until 1992, and astronomers first found alien planets around a sunlike star in 1995. [7 Ways to Discover Alien Planets]

TheKepler spacecrafthas therefore been a revelation, and has helped lead a revolution. The $600 million mission launched in March 2009, with the aim of determining how frequently Earth-like planets occur around theMilky Way galaxy.

The telescope spots alien planets using the "transit method," watching for the telltale brightness dips caused when an orbiting planet crosses the face of its host star from Kepler's perspective.

The instrument generally needs to observe multiple transits to flag a planet candidate, which is part of the reason why the most intriguing finds are expected to come relatively late in the mission. (Several transits of a huge, close-orbiting "hot Jupiter," which has no potential to host life, can be observed relatively quickly, while it may take years to gather the required data for a more distantly orbiting, possibly Earth-like world.)

"Before, we were just kind of plucking the low-hanging fruit, and now we're getting down into the weeds, and things are getting a little harder," Batalha said. "But that's a challenge we knew we would have."

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NASA's Kepler Space Telescope finds 1,000th alien planet

TOKYO Japanese automaker Nissan and NASA are teaming up to advance the technology behind cars that drive themselves.

Yokohama-based Nissan Motor Co. and NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, announced Thursday a five-year research-and-development partnership for autonomous vehicle systems so they can eventually be applied to commercially sold cars.

Nissan is excited about the potential of self-driving cars, which executives say could lead to improved safety, a pillar for future autos along with low emission technology.

NASA researchers will be working with Nissan's research unit in Silicon Valley, they said in a joint statement.

The maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models aims to introduce autonomous driving technology to consumers between 2016 and 2020. Ames developed the Mars rover software and robots onboard the International Space Station.

"The partnership brings together the best and brightest of NASA and Nissan and validates our investments in Silicon Valley," said Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn.

The safety technology in the works includes cars that know through sensors they are about to collide and will brake automatically, even if the driver doesn't do a thing. There are also cars that can park themselves.

At its most sophisticated, the technology could replace human drivers altogether, though there are many hurdles to that being put into practice on roads.

Automakers besides Nissan are working on the technology, including Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. and U.S. manufacturers General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co.

And companies outside the industry are getting involved, such as Google Inc.

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Nissan, NASA to work together on self-driving technology

TIME Science space travel These Vintage NASA Posters Imagine Travel Beyond the Stars Designers NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory capture the excitement of space exploration

Planet-hunters havent found a Mirror Earth orbiting a star beyond the Sun yet, but this weeks discovery of a new batch of exoplanets that come awfully close, plus the announcement that the amazing Kepler probe has topped the 1,000 mark in its search for alien worlds makes it only a matter of time before we find planets where life might be thriving.

Once that happens, of course were going to want to go visit.. Thats not going to happen tomorrow: its impossible to visit any of these worlds in person with any current technology, so until we build a Star Trek-style warp drive or discover an Interstellar-esque worm hole, a trip to an exoplanet will have to remain a dream.

Fortunately, though, NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, has some professional dreamers on staffartists who try to capture the excitement of space exploration in a way the rest of us can appreciate. Their latest creation: three fanciful posters advertising tourism to three actual exoplanets, done in the gorgeously romantic style of 1930s-era railway posters.

This being a NASA lab, they didnt just make stuff up. There was a lot of back-and-forth with the scientists, says David Delgado, one of the designers, figuring out which exoplanets to choose, then noodling on what it would actually like to visit them. In the case of Kepler 186f, for example, which was discovered last year, the planet orbits a small red star. Maybe the color of vegetation would be different there, he saysand on the poster, it is. The second poster shows Kepler 16b, a planet that orbits twin suns. The third depicts HD 40307g, a so-called Super Earth about 1.4 times the size of our home planet and eight times as massive. All three could in principle be habitable, based on how much heat they get from their stars.

The posters were really designed primarily for use within JPL, says Joby Harris, another designer on the project. When they were released to the public a few days ago, however, the response was overwhelmingly positive. We were a little surprised by it, admits Harris.

He shouldnt be. One of the reasons JPL has these artists on staff, says Delgado, is to get people excited about space science, to build their curiosity. Theyre clearly exceptionally good at doing their jobs.

Three more exoplanet posters are in the works, although theres no word on when theyll be finished. For those who want to print out their own posters, high-resolution print-optimized versions are on JPLs Planet Quest website.

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These Vintage NASA Posters Imagine Travel Beyond the Stars

The DC-8 airborne laboratory is one of several NASA aircraft that will fly in support the five new Earth Venture class missions to launch this year (Photo: NASA)

With the goal of shedding more light on a number of Earth system processes whose effect on our climate is incompletely understood, NASA will this year launch five new airborne field campaigns. These studies will look at long-range air pollution, warming ocean waters, melting Greenland glaciers, greenhouse gas sources, fires in Africa and clouds over the Atlantic, with the captured data to complement satellite- and surface-based observations to help provide a better understanding of the interconnected systems that affect our climate and how it is changing.

The missions were selected from a list of 33 proposals, with each to be funded by up to US$30 million over five years as part of the Earth Venture-class of missions. These are a series of uncoupled, relatively low-to-moderate cost, small to medium-sized, competitively selected missions, the first series of which were undertaken in 2010.

"These innovative airborne experiments will let us probe inside processes and locations in unprecedented detail that complements what we can do with our fleet of Earth-observing satellites," said Jack Kaye, associate director for research in NASA's Earth Science Division.

In total, these five new projects will involve seven NASA centers, 25 universities and other educational institutions, three American government agencies and two industry partners.

Source: NASA

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NASA takes climate change studies to the air

Space Shuttle Thermal Protective Tiles Available for Educational UseNASA invites eligible U.S. educational institutions and museums to request space shuttle thermal protective tiles and other special items offered on a first-come, first-served basis while quantities last. Organizations previously allocated thermal protective tiles may request an additional three tiles.There will be a nominal shipping fee that must be paid online with a credit card. To make a request for special items online, visithttp://gsaxcess.gov/htm/nasa/userguide/Special_Item_Request_Procedure.pdf.Questions about this opportunity should be directed toGSAXcessHelp@gsa.gov.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Unveils New Federal Agency Opportunity Bank

In order to increase Hispanic participation in all levels of government and in funding opportunities, the Federal Agency Opportunity Bank collects information from the Federal Interagency Working Group on Educational Excellence for Hispanics about the vast number of opportunities and investments supporting all youth, local and state agencies, nonprofits and other organizations supporting Hispanic educational excellence.Opportunities include but are not limited to federal employment, fellowships, internships, grant and peer review opportunities, and technical assistance workshops. In addition, there is information regarding partnerships, resources and tools, and federal award nominations. The Opportunity Bank will be updated quarterly with information from participating federal agencies. The goal is to continue highlighting opportunities and investments supporting all youth, local and state agencies, nonprofits and other organizations supporting Hispanic educational excellence. Users are encouraged to share this resource with their networks and congratulate agencies for their efforts on behalf of the Latino community.To view the Opportunity Bank, visithttp://www.ed.gov/edblogs/hispanic-initiative/federal-agency-opportunity-bank/.Questions about this resource should be directed towhieeh@ed.gov.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Free Education Webinars From NASA Educator Professional DevelopmentNASA Educator Professional Development is presenting a series of free webinars open to all educators. Join NASA education specialists to learn about activities, lesson plans, educator guides and resources to bring NASA into your classroom.NASA Rockets 2 Racecars Audience:Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades K-12Event Date:Jan. 8, 2015, at 5 p.m. ESTParticipants will learn about the NASA Rockets 2 Racecars program that offers opportunities for professional development at race tracks on the East Coast. Learn about the different NASA spinoffs related to car racing and how to participate at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 1, 2015.Magnetospheric Multiscale Mathematics Audience:Pre-service, In-service, Home School and Informal Educators of Grades 5-8Event Date:Jan. 8, 2015, at 6:30 p.m. ESTParticipants will learn about the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission set to launch in March 2015 and the mathematics-based educator guide associated with the mission. Participants will learn about the mission, get an overview of the lesson activities and engage in discussion about classroom implementation.For more information about these webinars and to register online, visithttps://paragon-tec.adobeconnect.com/admin/show-event-catalog.Questions about this series of webinars should be directed to Clarence Jones atClarence.F.Jones@NASA.gov.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2015 NASA Human Exploration Rover ChallengeNASA has opened team registration for the 2015 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge. Organized by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the event will be held April 16-18, 2015, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, also in Huntsville.The challenge engages high school, college and university students in hands-on, experiential learning activities, while also testing potential technologies needed for future deep space exploration. Both U.S. and international teams may register to participate. For U.S. teams, registration closesFeb. 6, 2015. Registration for international teams closesJan. 9, 2015.Student teams participating in the Rover Challenge must design, engineer and test a human-powered rover on a mock course designed to simulate the harsh and demanding terrains future NASA explorers may find on distant planets, moons and asteroids.For more information on the 2015 Human Exploration Rover Challenge and registration, visithttp://go.nasa.gov/14dikMF.

Follow the Rover Challenge on social media for the latest news and updates:https://www.facebook.com/roverchallenge?ref=hlhttps://twitter.com/RoverChallengehttp://instagram.com/nasa_marshall.

View images from the 2014 Rover Challenge athttp://go.nasa.gov/1iEjGRp.International teams with questions about this event or registration may email Amy McDowell atAmy.McDowell@nasa.gov. U.S. teams with questions may contact Diedra Williams atMSFC-RoverChallenge2015@mail.nasa.gov.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2015 RASC-AL Aerospace Concepts Design CompetitionNASA and the National Institute of Aerospace announce the 2015 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage, or RASC-AL, Aerospace Concepts competition. RASC-AL is a design project competition for university-level engineering students and faculty.The 2015 RASC-AL contest challenges participants to design projects based on real NASA problems, responding to one of four themes:-- Earth-Independent Mars Pioneering Architecture-- Earth-Independent Lunar Pioneering Architecture-- Mars' Moons Prospector Mission-- Large-Scale Mars Entry, Decent and Landing Pathfinder MissionConcepts derived from the design projects could potentially be implemented by NASA.Teams must submit an abstract for their proposed project byJan. 11, 2015. The RASC-AL Steering Committee of NASA and industry experts will evaluate the proposals and select as many as 11 undergraduate and five graduate teams to compete against each other at a forum in June 2015 in Florida.The RASC-AL competition is open to full-time undergraduate or graduate students majoring in engineering or science at an accredited university. University design teams must include one faculty or industry advisor with a university affiliation and two or more undergraduate or graduate students. A group of universities may also collaborate on a design project entry. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged.For more information about this competition, visithttp://nianet.org/RASCAL.If you have questions about this competition, please contact Stacy Dees atstacy.dees@nianet.orgor Shelley Spears atShelley.Spears@nianet.org.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2014-2015 NASA Goddard OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff ChallengeNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is launching the 2014-2015 TRANSFORMERS OPTIMUS PRIME Spinoff Challenge, hosted by the Innovative Technology Partnerships Office. The purpose of the challenge is to raise awareness of NASA's Technology Transfer Program and to inspire interest in all NASA missions, programs and projects.This year the scope of the contest is being expanded to include two challenges. In the first challenge, students in grades 3-12 are asked to submit a video describing their favorite NASA Goddard spinoff. In a new twist, participants in this years contest must also use the engineering design process to develop and propose a new spinoff application of their own for the technology. Spinoffs are technologies originally created for space and modified into everyday products used on Earth. Examples include memory foam, invisible braces and scratch-resistant lenses for eyeglasses.The second challenge, the TRANSFORMERS OPTIMUS PRIME InWorld Challenge, offers students in grades 6-12 an opportunity to take their video spinoff ideas to another level. Interested teams must study James Webb Space Telescope spinoff technology and post their completed spinoff videos for review by college engineering students. Engineering college mentors will select 20 teams to continue the collaborative design process within a multiuser virtual world to build a 3-D model of the teams design solutions.Winning students from each grade category will be invited to Goddard to participate in a behind-the-scenes workshop, attend a VIP awards ceremony and meet actor Peter Cullen, the voice of OPTIMUS PRIME.The deadline to register and upload videos isJan. 12, 2015.For more information, visithttp://itpo.gsfc.nasa.gov/optimus/.Questions about this contest should be directed to Darryl Mitchell atDarryl.R.Mitchell@nasa.gov.TRANSFORMERS and OPTIMUS PRIME are trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. 2014 Hasbro. All rights reserved.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Free Program -- Cubes in SpaceTMidoodlelearning is offering two flight opportunities as part of the Cubes in Space program. A free science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics, or STEAM, program for students ages 11-18, Cubes in Space provides opportunities for students to design and compete to launch experiments into space.In partnership with Colorado Space Grant Consortium as part of the RockSat-C program, experiments will be launched via a sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia, in late June 2015. This opportunity is open to U.S. and international students 11-14 years of age.Through partnership with NASA Langley Research Center, a second flight opportunity is offered on a zero-pressure scientific balloon to be launched from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico, in September 2015. The Science Missions Directorate Astrophysics division manages the NASA scientific balloon program; Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia oversees Balloon Flight Operations. This opportunity is open to students 11-18 years of age who are U.S. citizens.Using formal or informal learning environments, students and educators will learn about the methodology for taking an idea from design through the review process. Throughout the experience, students will acquire key 21st century skills necessary for success in a highly connected, global society.The deadline for program registration isJan. 12, 2015.For more information, visithttp://www.CubesInSpace.com.Questions about this program should be directed toinfo@cubesinspace.com.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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NASA Education Express Message for Jan. 8, 2015

Structure Found On Mars And NASA Keeps Mouth Shut
Going over a photo in the SOUTHEAST FLOOR OF WEST CANDOR CHASMA this strange structure was found. This can be found on the MOC narrow-angle image AB1-08405. More and more strange ...

By: sonofmabarker

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Structure Found On Mars And NASA Keeps Mouth Shut - Video

NASA Space Station Crew Discusses Life In Space With The Media
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA and Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency...

By: NASA

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NASA Space Station Crew Discusses Life In Space With The Media - Video