Modern civilization headed for collapse, says NASA-funded study
According to a new scientific study funded by NASA, modern civilization is heading for collapse within a matter of decades. In the study, mathematicians used...
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Modern civilization headed for collapse, says NASA-funded study - Video
Road Atlanta - NASA HPDE 1 - Honda s2000
First time at Road Atlanta, cooking it up in HPDE1!
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NASA Says World Headed for Soon Destruction
According to a new scientific study funded by NASA, modern civilization is heading for collapse within a matter of decades. In the study, mathematicians used...
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NASA - THEMIS Animation 720p
The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission was originally a constellation of five NASA satellites (THEMIS A thr...
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IT Heroes Showcase: Paperless Contracting Initiative
NASA IT Labs #39; Paperless Contracting Initiative project lead, Zachary Burkland, presented his team #39;s work Thursday, 20 March, 1230 CDT.
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NASA, with an eye toward Earth-based projects, is calling on software and hardware developers to create new technologies for addressing issues around coastal flooding.
The space agency on Wednesday launched its third global codeathon, this time featuring a challenge focused on coastal flooding. The call to arms, in addition to three other climate-themed challenges, show NASAs interest in amassing knowledge and solving problems revolving not just around space exploration, but social needs as well.
The agency hopes participants will leverage federal data to create simulations and other technology that could help people understand their exposure to coastal-inundation hazards and other dangers, NASA said.
The initiative was announced alongside a new effort by the White House to make climate change data more accessible to the public and researchers alike, as part of President Obamas open data project. Other groups like Google and the World Bank will contribute data of their own to the project, the White House said, which is designed to help Americans plan for climate impacts.
NASA has some interesting ideas about what applications might come out of the two-day challenge, which will be hosted at nearly 100 locations across the world next month. New technologies could help coastal businesses understand their level of exposure to flooding risks, or the extent to which they might be affected by sea level rise and coastal erosion in the future.
Solutions developed through this challenge could have many potential impacts, said NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan, in the agencys announcement.
NASAs coastal flooding challenge is one of four climate-related challenges using data provided by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. But beyond coastal flooding, the codeathon includes more than 40 new challenges related to other areas including robotics, human spaceflight and asteroids. Half of the challenges are focused here on Earth.
In total, NASA hopes participants will make use more than 200 data sources for the event to build their applications.
The codeathon could be seen as the agencys version of the obligatory hackathon now hosted by many Internet companies. The events usually have developers break from their usual routine and work feverishly to knock out code aimed at new applications or products.
NASAs effort seeks to capitalize on President Obamas open government initiative, which aims to make data from U.S. government agencies, like from NASA, more easily accessible online. The codeathon will be held April 12-13.
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NASA along with space agencies around the world are preparing for the third annualInternational Space Apps Challenge, which will be held April 12-13. Participants will develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth.
At the Climate Data Initiative launch at the White House Wednesday, NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan will announce the inclusion of a new challenge focused on coastal flooding, developed by NASA and NOAA, and based on federal cross-agency data. The Coastal Inundation in Your Community challenge is one of four climate-related challenges using data provided by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The challenge encourages entrepreneurs, technologists, and developers to create and deploy data-driven visualizations and simulations that will help people understand their exposure to coastal-inundation hazards and other vulnerabilities.
Solutions developed through this challenge could have many potential impacts, said Stofan. "This includes helping coastal businesses determine whether they are currently at risk from coastal inundation, and whether they will be impacted in the future by sea level rise and coastal erosion."
The two-day International Space Apps Challenge will be a codeathon-style event locally hosted at almost 100 locations spanning six continents. More than 200 data sources, including data sets, data services, and tools will be made available. This event will bring tech-savvy citizens, scientists, entrepreneurs, educators, and students together to help solve challenges relevant to both space exploration and social needs.
"The International Space Apps Challenge is one of the U.S. commitments to the Open Government Partnership to explore new ways that open space data can help the planet and further space exploration," said Deborah Diaz, deputy chief information officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This year, more than 40 new challenges will represent NASA mission priorities and be organized in five themes: Earth Watch, Technology in Space Human Spaceflight, Robotics, and Asteroids. About half of the challenges are in the Earth Watch theme, which supports NASA's focus on Earth science in 2014.
For the first time in more than a decade, five NASA Earth science missions are being launched into space in the same year, opening new and improved remote eyes to monitor our changing planet. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
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NASA Launches Its Third Global 'Codeathon' with New Coastal Flooding Challenge
March 20, 2014
Image Caption: In the spring of 2011, heavy rains and snow pack resulted in record releases from dams in Montana and the Dakotas, and near-record flooding along parts of the Missouri River. One especially hard-hit community was Hamburg, Iowa, where levee failure in early June caused extensive flooding and the evacuation of many homes. By late June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had rebuilt the levees and Hamburg was protected from additional flooding. The left image, acquired on Sept. 24, 2010, was taken by the Thematic Mapper sensor aboard Landsat 5. The right image, acquired on Aug. 2, 2011, was taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus on Landsat 7. Credit: U.S. Department of the Interior/USGS, NASA
NASA
Flooding is the most frequent and widespread weather-related natural disaster, taking a huge toll in lives and property each year. NASA Earth-observing satellites and airborne missions provide vital information to emergency planners, relief organizations and weather forecasters, helping to improve flood monitoring and forecasting, as well as providing a more comprehensive understanding of one of Mother Natures most damaging hazards.
NASAs Earth-observing satellites provide detailed images of flood-affected areas, which are vital for mapping flood extent. For instance, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASAs Terra and Aqua satellites monitor a broad area of our planet, providing visible-light imagery, infrared information and other types of data on a daily basis to scientists and emergency managers. The Landsat satellites in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey provide even higher-resolution imagery, which can be used to map Earths land surfaces before and after disasters. Landsat serves as an essential tool for assessing flood risk and mapping the extent of damage for post-disaster recovery. Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) is an advanced land-imaging mission that includes three advanced land imaging instruments and five revolutionary cross cutting spacecraft technologies.
The United Nations World Food Programme, which delivers food relief to inundated areas, uses NASA Earth science satellite-based flood maps to locate floods and map delivery routes to affected areas. Contractors with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also use Landsat imagery to track urban development, which can affect an areas flood risk.
These maps, which reveal the extent and duration of a flood, also allow for more accurate flood forecasting models. By mapping floods, we can model where future floods will be, said Bob Brakenridge, director of the Flood Observatory at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which has documented flooding events worldwide over the past 14 years. If an area floods year after year, then scientists can predict the likelihood and severity of flooding in surrounding lands.
NASA satellites also provide precipitation measurements, which play an important role in flood monitoring. If you can see very high rainfall rates in certain regions, that can feed into [flooding] models, said Eric Wood, a hydrologist at Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. Data from NASAs Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, known as TRMM, allow scientists to model surface runoff and river discharge, helping predict floods and landslides.
In late February, NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) missions Core Observatory, which will provide unprecedented data on rain and snowfall and significantly contribute to flooding research. GPM will allow scientists to estimate the sizes of precipitation particles and detect a large range of precipitation rates. GPM will go a long way with improving the accuracy of rainfall measurements, said Wood.
The GPM Core Observatory will collect information that unifies and improves data from an international constellation of existing and future satellites by mapping global precipitation every three hours.
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NASA is distancing itself from a new study that investigates how unsustainable resource exploitation and rising income inequality could potentially lead to the collapse of human civilization as we know it.
NASA officials released this statement on the study today (March 20): "A soon-to-be published research paper, 'Human and Nature Dynamics (HANDY): Modeling Inequality and Use of Resources in the Collapse or Sustainability of Societies' by University of Maryland researchers Safa Motesharrei and Eugenia Kalnay, and University of Minnesota's Jorge Rivas, was not solicited, directed or reviewed byNASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity. As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions."
The study, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Ecological Economics, received a lot of attention recently. For example, a story about it that ran last Friday (March 14) in the British newspaper The Guardian had been shared more than 113,000 times on Facebook as of today (March 20) and was picked up by Gizmodo and other media outlets. Many of the media reports about the forthcoming paper have made much of NASA's involvement. The Guardian's story, for example, sports the following headline: "Nasa-funded study: industrial civilisation headed for 'irreversible collapse'?" Such accounts motivated the space agency to issue the statement as a clarification.
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News
By Zach Miners
March 20, 2014 05:25 AM ET
IDG News Service - NASA, with an eye toward Earth-based projects, is calling on software and hardware developers to create new technologies for addressing issues around coastal flooding.
The space agency on Wednesday launched its third global "codeathon," this time featuring a challenge focused on coastal flooding. The call to arms, in addition to three other climate-themed challenges, show NASA's interest in amassing knowledge and solving problems revolving not just around space exploration, but social needs as well.
The agency hopes participants will leverage federal data to create simulations and other technology that could help people understand their exposure to coastal-inundation hazards and other dangers, NASA said.
The initiative was announced alongside a new effort by the White House to make climate change data more accessible to the public and researchers alike, as part of President Obama's open data project. Other groups like Google and the World Bank will contribute data of their own to the project, the White House said, which is designed to help Americans plan for climate impacts.
NASA has some interesting ideas about what applications might come out of the two-day challenge, which will be hosted at nearly 100 locations across the world next month. New technologies could help coastal businesses understand their level of exposure to flooding risks, or the extent to which they might be affected by sea level rise and coastal erosion in the future.
"Solutions developed through this challenge could have many potential impacts," said NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan, in the agency's announcement.
NASA's coastal flooding challenge is one of four climate-related challenges using data provided by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. But beyond coastal flooding, the codeathon includes more than 40 new challenges related to other areas including robotics, human spaceflight and asteroids. Half of the challenges are focused here on Earth.
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A NASA spacecraft has spotted a big gully on Mars, a feature that appears to have formed only within the last three years.
The powerful HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) imaged the channel, which is found on the slope of a crater wall in the Red Planet's mid-southern latitudes, on May 25, 2013. The feature was not present in HiRISE photos of the area taken on Nov. 5, 2010. NASA unveiled the image on Wednesday (March 19).
Do you think life exists on Mars today?
While the Mars gully looks a lot like river channels here on Earth, it likely was not carved out by flowing water, NASA officials said.
"The dates of the images are more than a full Martian year apart, so the observations did not pin down the Martian season of the activity at this site," officials wrote in a description of the gully image on Wednesday.
But, they added, "before-and-after HiRISE pairs of similar activity at other sites demonstrate that this type of activity generally occurs in winter, at temperatures so cold that carbon dioxide, rather than water, is likely to play the key role."
However, MRO has observed other Martian features that do seem associated with liquid water dark streaks known as recurring slope lineae.
RSL lines snake down crater walls and other slopes during warm weather on the Red Planet, and some researchers think they're caused by briny water that contains an iron-based antifreeze. Direct evidence of flowing water at RSL sites, however, remains elusive.
Mars Myths & Misconceptions: Quiz
No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet.
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Red Dwarf Star
Artist's depiction of the powerful flare that erupted from the red dwarf star EV Lacertae in 2008.
Unlike Earth, Venus lacks a magnetic field to deflect powerful solar outbursts -- as can be seen in this NASA-created image, a still from the video "Dynamic Earth: Exploring Earth's Climate Engine."
This vertigo-inducing, false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. The angry eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green. Low-lying clouds circling inside the hexagonal feature appear as muted orange color. A second, smaller vortex pops out in teal at the lower right of the image. The rings of Saturn appear in vivid blue at the top right.
This Hubble photo is of a small portion of a large star-birthing region in the Carina Nebula. Towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula.
This computer simulation shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Some of the gas also is being ejected at high speed into space.
This image of Asia and Australia at night is a composite assembled from data acquired by the Suomi NPP satellite in April and October 2012.
In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASAs Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.
A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago.
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught Jupiter's moon Ganymede playing a game of "peek-a-boo." In this crisp image, Ganymede is shown just before it ducks behind the giant planet.
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Club Crimson 16 1 vs A5 Mizuno 16 3 Part 4, NASA Bash 3 1 2014
Club Crimson 16-1 power team competing in 4th tournament of 2014 season. NASA Spring Bash Tournament in Huntsville, Alabama on March 1-2, 2014. Team members:...
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Club Crimson 16 1 vs A5 Mizuno 16 3 Part 4, NASA Bash 3 1 2014 - Video
Cassini #39;s Adventures at Saturn Continue | NASA JPL Space Science
More space news and info at: http://www.coconutsciencelab.com - a rundown of Cassini #39;s future plans at Saturn. Please rate and comment, thanks! Credit: NASA ...
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Cassini's Adventures at Saturn Continue | NASA JPL Space Science - Video
Unidentified objects UFO near the Sun on NASA satellite images - March 16, 2014
The sun had disappeared We see the stars, but did not see the sun! This is not a defect and the reorientation of the satellite! Sun - The Portal! I #39;m looking...
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Unidentified objects UFO near the Sun on NASA satellite images - March 16, 2014 - Video
NASA Sonoma Group C Mar 15 2014
Two forward facing cameras here, one from the driver behind me and then my in-car. Confusing at first, but offers a different perspective. . Before race, sit...
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NASA HPDE 3 WHP East 3-15-2014 Session 2
This was the last few laps of session two on Saturday 3-15-2014. After the Civic went off track I turned in my fastest time yet. I was able to a ride along w...
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NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio and the DOE Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) Argonne, Ill., are collaborating to develop next generation batteries for use in future space missions.
The coordinated effort announced today combines JCESRs deep knowledge of the basic science in energy storage research with NASA Glenns expertise engineering battery technologies with aerospace applications. JCESR and Glenn intend to perform the required research so that NASA can identify promising technologies to develop, test and build prototypes for use in NASA missions for planetary exploration.
Todays lithium-ion batteries, which hold more than twice the energy of those released in 1991, power our cellular phones, laptops and electric vehicles. But even when brought to their energy storage potential, lithium-ion batteries will not meet NASAs needs. Capitalizing on JCESRs research,Glenn will focus on developing next generation batteries with energy capacities beyond those of lithium-ion batteries to meet the aggressive goals of the space program.
As part of the collaboration, Glenn will serve as a potential "first adopter" of developed high potential battery technologies suitable for aerospace applications. Some of the application areas NASA has identified for use of next generation batteries are Extravehicular Activity suits, exploratory rovers and green aviation.
NASA Glenn scientists, researchers, and engineers have a decades long heritage of making major breakthroughs in energy storage in support of our countrys exploration of space and international leadership in commercial and military aviation," said Robert J. Shaw, Director of Venture Development and Partnerships at Glenn. "Our efforts include fundamental research, technology development, hardware system integration and performance testing."
"We deeply appreciate the efforts of our DOE colleagues at Argonne," added Shaw. "Were excited and committed to this collaboration opportunity."
"The beyond lithium-ion space is rich with opportunity and mostly unexplored," said George Crabtree, Director of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. "In this collaboration, JCESR will share fundamental research results with NASA, enabling them to develop technologies that benefit the space program and, ultimately, society as a whole through commercialization opportunities with a wide range of applications."
NASA Glenn, in partnership with U.S. industry, universities, and other Government institutions, develops critical systems technologies and capabilities that address national priorities. Our world-class research, technology and capability development efforts are keys to advancing space exploration of our solar system and beyond, while maintaining global leadership in aeronautics. Our work is focused on technological advancements in space flight systems development, aeropropulsion, space propulsion, power systems, nuclear systems, communications and human-related systems.
The Joint Center for Energy Storage Research is amajor partnershipthat integrates researchers from many disciplines to overcome critical scientific and technical barriers and create new breakthrough energy storage technology. Led by theU.S. Department of Energys Argonne National Laboratory, partners include national leaders in science and engineering from academia, the private sector, and national laboratories. Their combined expertise spans the full range of the technology-development pipeline from basic research to prototype development to product engineering to market delivery. Funding for JCESR is provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
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Scientists, using cameras aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have created the largest high resolution mosaic of our moons north polar region. The six-and-a-half feet (two-meters)-per-pixel images cover an area equal to more than one-quarter of the United States.
Web viewers can zoom in and out, and pan around an area. Constructed from 10,581 pictures, the mosaic provides enough detail to see textures and subtle shading of the lunar terrain. Consistent lighting throughout the images makes it easy to compare different regions.
"This unique image is a tremendous resource for scientists and the public alike," said John Keller, LRO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "It's the latest example of the exciting insights and data products LRO has been providing for nearly five years."
The images making up the mosaic were taken by the two LRO Narrow Angle Cameras, which are part of the instrument suite known as the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The cameras can record a tremendous dynamic range of lit and shadowed areas.
"Creation of this giant mosaic took four years and a huge team effort across the LRO project," said Mark Robinson, principal investigator for the LROC at Arizona State University in Tempe. "We now have a nearly uniform map to unravel key science questions and find the best landing spots for future exploration."
The entire image measures 931,070 pixels square nearly 867 billion pixels total. A complete printout at 300 dots per inch considered crisp resolution for printed publications would require a square sheet of paper wider than a professional U.S. football field and almost as long. If the complete mosaic were processed as a single file, it would require approximately 3.3 terabytes of storage space. Instead, the processed mosaic was divided into millions of small, compressed files, making it manageable for users to view and navigate around the image using a web browser.
LRO entered lunar orbit in June 2009 equipped with seven instrument suites to map the surface, probe the radiation environment, investigate water and key mineral resources, and gather geological clues about the moon's evolution.
Researchers used additional information about the moon's topography from LRO's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, as well as gravity information from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, to assemble the mosaic. Launched in September 2011, the GRAIL mission, employing twin spacecraft named Ebb and Flow, generated a gravity field map of the moon -- the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. LRO is managed by Goddard for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. LROC was designed and built by Malin Space Science Systems and is operated by the University of Arizona. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed the GRAIL mission for SMD.
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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a one-year contract extension on the Cargo Mission Contract 2 valued at$22 million.
The extension ensures continuation of processing services, including support planning, coordination, preparation and packing of standardized containers for cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station (ISS). Through this extension, Lockheed Martin will also manage Flight Crew Equipment support, which includes buying, maintaining and preparing items for the ISS crew such as clothing, housekeeping and personal hygiene items, laptop computers and audio and visual equipment.
The extension beginsApril 1and is the first of four options in the original Cargo Mission Contract awarded inDecember 2010.
"Lockheed Martin has a history of outstanding performance on the Cargo Mission Contract, providing the International Space Station program with affordable, responsive and flexible solutions," saidRick Hieb, vice president of exploration and mission support for Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions. "We look forward to continuing our support to NASA and the International Space Station with innovative and efficient processing to meet their future cargo provisioning needs."
Through this program, Lockheed Martin manages, stores and maintains more than 3 million items for the ISS crew. Additionally, the team annually exports and ships about 25,000 pounds of cargo to launch locations around the world, includingRussia,Kazakhstan,Japan,French Guianaandthe United States.
As the ISS program continues to evolve, Lockheed Martin has been flexible in responding to and supporting a variety of changes in manifests. The team has quickly worked late requests to keep the ISS supplied with critical items to sustain the crew and continue important scientific research.
Lockheed Martin also supports NASA's Johnson Space Center inHoustonby providing systems engineering and analysis, control center design, development and operations, life sciences services, human in-the-loop simulations, and a broad range of engineering, science and technical services activities.
Headquartered inBethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 115,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2013 were$45.4 billion.
For additional information, visit our website:http://www.lockheedmartin.com
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NASA Extends Lockheed Martin Contract to Support International Space Station