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Category Archives: NASA

NASA's "global selfie" shows Earth as you've never seen it before

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NASA's 2014 #GlobalSelfie of Earth, a mosaic of 36,422 individual photos taken on Earth Day all around the world. NASA

It took 36,422 individual photos from 113 countries around the world to create NASA's 2014 "global selfie" -- an interactive, composite picture of our planet.

In observance of Earth Day in April, NASA posed the question, "Where are you on Earth right now?" and invited people to reply with a photo.

Thousands of people did, uploaded their pictures to Twitter, Instagram or Google+ using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie. or posting them on Facebook or the photo site Flickr.

The mosaic image can be explored interactively using Gigapan technology that allows users to zoom in on any part of the globe.

2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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NASA's "global selfie" shows Earth as you've never seen it before

NASA Announces Winners Of The 2014 International Space Apps Challenge

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NASA mission priorities were explored by five winners of the 2014 International Space Apps Challenge, a worldwide "hackathon" to spark innovation with direct application to future space missions and improve life on Earth.

NASA judges have selected five challenge winners, and the global social media community selected a Peoples Choice fan favorite. The competition took place at 95 locations around the world April 11-12. More than 8,000 participants developed software, hardware, data visualizations, and mobile or Web applications for the challenge.

This year, nearly 40 challenges represented NASA priorities in five themes: Earth Watch, Technology in Space, Human Spaceflight, Robotics and Asteroids.

The challenge categories and winners are:

Alert-Alert challenge: SkyWatch, selected as the Best Use of Data, was created at Space Apps Toronto. The SkyWatch app is a visual representation of data collected from observatories around the world in near real time. The app provides telescope coordinates of celestial events, and plots the location through Google Sky. Users can subscribe or filter sky alerts, and share them through social media.

NASA continues to build on our nation's record of breathtaking and compelling scientific discoveries and achievements in space, with science missions that will reach far into our solar system, reveal unknown aspects of our universe and provide critical knowledge about our home planet.

PhoneSat challenge: Android Base Station, selected as the Best Use of Hardware, was created at Space Apps London to transform a smart phone into wifi hotspot by connecting to satellites using a 3-D printed receiver. This automated, ultra-portable, satellite tracking station can log changes in micro-satellites in orbit.

NASA's deep space exploration program is driving the development of new technologies. PhoneSats are another way NASA is innovating new technologies to support the missions of tomorrow.

Space Wearables challenge: Aurora Wearables, selected as the Best Mission Concept, was created at Space Apps Exeter as a collaboration between artists, fashion designers, technologists, and software developers. This internet-connected spacesuit is designed for astronauts to wear on the International Space Station and beyond.

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NASA Announces Winners Of The 2014 International Space Apps Challenge

Help NASA pick the reconnaisance orbiter's best moon image

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NASA wants the public to choose the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's best moon shot through a vote that will place the winner on the cover of a special image collection.

A colorized look at a lunar impact crater. NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

NASA's Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter (LRO) is celebrating five years of floating around the moon, capturing fascinating images and data, and helping us understand more about our closest heavenly body. The actual orbit anniversary is coming up on June 18. To celebrate, NASA has culled through images created using data from the LRO and picked out five of the best. It's up to the public to narrow the selection down to the finest of them all.

The images highlight the variety of data the LRO has beamed back to us here on Earth. One image, titled "Starry Night," is mottled blue, red, and yellow. It was created with information generated by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, a laser device that beams pulses onto the lunar surface to unveil the nooks and crannies of the moon.

A stark and stunning black-and-white image titled "Tycho Central Peak" shows a sunrise in the Tycho crater. It's both alien and familiar. This one gets my vote. It looks like Ansel Adams hopped a ride on an Apollo mission and laid in wait to catch the crater at just the right moment.

The other images include a rainbow-colored topographical view of an impact crater, a visualization of temperatures on the north pole, and the curious tendril-like geography of the Clerke crater.

NASA asks us to view the moon as art. Any one of these five chosen images could grace the wall of an art gallery. Voting is open until June 6, and the winning image will be revealed on June 18.

Tycho peak in gorgeous black and white. NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

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Help NASA pick the reconnaisance orbiter's best moon image

NASA's Space Launch System One Step Closer To 2017 Flight

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Sun, May 25, 2014

NASA and ATK are one step closer to meeting a 2017 launch date for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) after completion of a significant structural test of the booster's main attachment mechanism. NASA is developing SLS to take humans farther into deep space than ever before.

"We test like we fly," said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK's Space Launch Division, and former four-time space shuttle astronaut. "There are no second chances in spaceflightwe have to be certain we've got it right before we launch."

The article tested was a major load-bearing structure known as the forward skirt. The attach point on the forward skirt is where the main stage attaches to the five-segment solid rocket boosters that will launch SLS into deep space. ATK is providing the boosters as well as integration with the forward skirt.

The forward skirt is one of many critical components of the SLS booster design and must be tested to meet very demanding SLS requirements. For the test, ATK designed and fabricated a new test stand capable of applying millions of pounds of force to the structure.

Technicians tested the forward skirt at simulated lift-off and ascent conditions before testing it to failure. The final test demonstrated the structure's maximum load.

NASA's SLS booster program remains on track for a late 2017 launch. The booster critical design review will be held this summer.

(Image provided by ATK)

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NASA's Space Launch System One Step Closer To 2017 Flight

NASA’s Morpheus lander completes free-flight test at Kennedy Space Center – Video

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NASA #39;s Morpheus lander completes free-flight test at Kennedy Space Center
A prototype planetary lander, Morpheous, designed to help NASA test advanced spacecraft technology, was successfully tested on May 22. The research aims to improve human exploration missions...

By: euronews (in English)

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NASA's Morpheus lander completes free-flight test at Kennedy Space Center - Video


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