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NASA comes to Howard Community College for forum on climate change data

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Scientists who observe the Earth from space say data they collect show that climate change is affecting the planet's landscape.

With a goal of sharing that data with the public, a forum titled "Changing Landscapes Observed from Space" will open to the public Nov. 8 at Howard Community College.

"It surprises people to learn about the impact on land use changes," said Jim Irons, a Kings Contrivance resident who is deputy director of the Earth Sciences Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Beltsville.

"Some people don't understand or don't want to hear about the impact on the local environment and on our quality of life," he said. "We want to talk about why we're concerned by explaining to the public what we do and why we do it."

The forum will cover changes to the urban, agricultural and forest landscapes and to the Chesapeake Bay watershed; it is the fourth such event since 2011 to focus on an aspect of NASA's climate change studies.

The half-day program will be sponsored by two citizen advocacy groups, Transition Howard County and Howard County Climate Change, along with the science, technology and engineering division of Howard Community College. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m. and the program will run from 9 a.m. to noon.

Irons, who spoke Tuesday at HCC at a land use forum geared toward students, has worked for 38 years at NASA, which launched its first Landsat satellite in 1972.

Landsat is a series of Earth-observing satellite missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Irons is the project scientist for Landsat 8, which was launched in 2013.

Edward Hilsenrath, a Fulton resident and retired NASA atmospheric scientist who is helping organize the event, said many people associate NASA with the journey to Mars, the International Space Station or the Hubble Space Telescope, and don't fully understand the scope of NASA's earth science research, which has a budget of $2.5 billion.

"Few people have an idea of what NASA does in its earth science program," he said.

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NASA comes to Howard Community College for forum on climate change data

How NASA Research Is Preparing Mankind For An Potential Interstellar-Like Scenario

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Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Space exploration will once again be featured on the big screen with this weeks release of the Paramount Pictures movie Interstellar, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.

In the film, a team of astronauts are charged with finding a new home for humanity after war, famine, plague and climate change wreak havoc on the Earth. In real life, however, NASA scientists, engineers and astronauts are working hard to make sure our home planet never meets such a fate, while also working hard to explore the universe around us, just in case we ever do need to find a new home out there amongst the stars.

[ Watch the Music Video: Preparing America For Deep Space Exploration ]

The cosmos beckons us to explore farther from home, expanding human presence deeper into the solar system and beyond. For thousands of years weve wondered if we could find another home among the stars. Were right on the cusp of answering that question, the US space agency explained in a statement released Friday.

If you step outside on a very dark night you may be lucky enough to see many of the 2,000 stars visible to the human eye, NASA added. Theyre but a fraction of the billions of stars in our galaxy and the innumerable galaxies surrounding us. Multiple NASA missions are helping us extend humanitys senses and capture starlight to help us better understand our place in the universe.

For example, the agency said that largely visible light telescopes such as Hubble have led scientists to learn that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and infrared missions (which include Spitzer, SOFIA and WISE) have allowed NASA personnel to analyze the stellar nurseries where new stars are formed from gases.

Furthermore, missions such as Chandra, Fermi and NuSTAR have made it possible to locate and witness the final moments of massive stars, which are capable of releasing enormous amounts of energy through supernovas and form black holes, and over the past few years new advances of technology (including the Kepler Space Telescope) have allowed researchers to fully understand just how many other planets there could be outside our solar system.

[ Watch the Video: Professor Stephen Hawking On Space Exploration ]

Kepler, which is currently located from 64 million miles, examined a small region of a sky for a four-year period, measuring the change in brightness that occurred when planets passed in front of a star in its line of view. Based on those observations, the telescope was able to determine the likelihood that other planets orbit stars, and thanks to its findings, NASA was able to discover that it was possible that every star could have at least one planet.

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How NASA Research Is Preparing Mankind For An Potential Interstellar-Like Scenario

NASA seeks proposals for deep space missions

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NASA is preparing to launch its Orion spacecraft in December and its Space Launch System (SLS) is scheduled to fly by 2018. However, impressive as this is, more is needed if buyer's regret isn't to set in. To avoid this, the space agency is asking for proposals to develop new technologies to send astronauts to the asteroids and Mars using "sustainable, evolvable, multi-use space capabilities."

The Broad Area Announcement (BAA) isn't for fully-devoted technologies, but offers funds for studies aimed at the development of three areas of advanced propulsion systems, space habitats, and nanosatellites.

NASA has had success with ion engines, but the space agency say it needs engines that jump from the current 5 kW to 40 kW, if it can be used for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), and is looking for proposals for systems that can reach 50 to 300 kW.

Another area of interest is space habitats. The Orion capsule may be capable of carrying of astronauts into deep space, but any mission beyond three weeks duration will require a habitat to provide more living space. To help achieve this, NASA is soliciting proposals for studies into the transportation, operation, and environmental capabilities of habitats.

These will be carried as piggyback payloads on the SLS beginning with Exploration Mission-1. NASA is looking for more general proposals for the design and employment of nanosats.

NASA is accepting proposals electronically from US companies, nonprofits and international institutions until December 12.

Source: NASA

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NASA seeks proposals for deep space missions

‘Arun not associated with NASA’ says mother : FIR 29th Oct 2014 – Video

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#39;Arun not associated with NASA #39; says mother : FIR 29th Oct 2014
Arun not associated with NASA #39; says mother : FIR on Asianet News facebook For latest news: See more at: http://www.asianetnews.tv/ Subscribe the youtube channel for latest videos: http://goo.gl/Xj...

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'Arun not associated with NASA' says mother : FIR 29th Oct 2014 - Video

Mars Anomalies Recent NASA Image Reveals A Valve Evidence Of Technology On Mars Celtic Cross – Video

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Mars Anomalies Recent NASA Image Reveals A Valve Evidence Of Technology On Mars Celtic Cross
A recent NASA image reveals evidence of technology on MARS. The object in the image taken by NASA #39;s Mars Curiosity rover shows a valve similar to high pressure valves on earth. The objects...

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Mars Anomalies Recent NASA Image Reveals A Valve Evidence Of Technology On Mars Celtic Cross - Video

NASA Program Enhances Climate Resilience at Agency Facilities

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A new study in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society provides an in-depth look at how NASA facilities have been affected by climate extremes and climate change in recent years and how the agency is preparing for the future.

Using a blend of weather data, global and regional climate model outputs, and advances in the understanding of the climate system, the study finds that many types of extreme events are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude in the future and pose hazards to NASA's mission, infrastructure and workforce.

The study found that by the 2050s, sea level rise alone could lead to an increase of 50 percent or more in coastal flooding frequency with varying impacts to NASA facilities, a high percentage of which are located near coastlines. In total, the agency has approximately$32 billionin constructed assets and about 64,000 employees, contractors and partners.

"Risk management is central to continuity of NASA operations, and the agency is including potential climate extremes in its risk management framework," saidCalvin Williams, assistant administrator for NASA's Office of Strategic Infrastructure at the agency's Headquarters inWashington.

A partnership between Earth scientists and institutional stewards is helping NASA prepare for a changing climate and increasing vulnerabilities to such change. The agency established the Climate Adaptation Science Investigator (CASI) working group as an important part of this effort. The CASI initiative brings Earth scientists together with facility managers, emergency management staff, natural resource managers and human capital specialists at each NASA center to discuss management of climate risks and resilience.

Workshops were held at five NASA centers that brought together climate scientists, mission operations personnel, human resource managers, and ecosystem specialists. Using the climate projections prepared by CASI scientists in conjunction with each center, risks were explored and adaptation strategies developed.

"NASA has cutting-edge climate science and world-class stewardship at its facilities," saidCynthia Rosenzweig, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies inNew York, who led the study and the ongoing CASI initiative. "Now climate scientists and institutional stewards are working together to enhance resilience to climate extremes and change."

The initiative strengthens the science community's commitment to understanding climate impacts, targets research to the needs of the agency's institutional stewards, and equips those stewards through workshops and ongoing knowledge sharing as a basis for proactive risk management.

"NASA science provides an important knowledge base that the centers and their surrounding communities can use in preparing for changing climate conditions," saidJack Kaye, associate director of NASA's Earth Science Division inWashington. "This integrated, science-based approach to climate risk management can provide a model for other agencies."

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NASA Program Enhances Climate Resilience at Agency Facilities


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