NASA astronaut Jack Fischer captured one of the rarest views of San Diego possible over the weekend: the view from space.

Looking down from the International Space Station, the former Air Force colonel took a time-lapse video as he passed over the span of Earth that includes San Diego and Denver.

San Diego to Denverat nightfrom space, he tweeted. It always amazes me how fast were cruisin around the planet, but I sure love the view!

The footage was taken 250 miles above the Earth while traveling 17,500 miles per hour, according to Fischer.

Fischer joined NASAs Expedition 51/52 in April. This crew, which includes U.S. commander Peggy Whitson, was sent to explore the microorganisms present aboard the space station, measure the charges of cosmic rays and study the way foods and medications respond to lypholization in microgravity.

This isnt the first time Fischer has shared spectacular photos and videos from space.

His San Diego to Denver tweet was shared and liked thousands of time as people on Earth admired the view.

The Denver Broncos made sure to wave back. (The San Diego Chargers did not.)

Others shared their amazement with Fischer.

Viewers also saw this as an opportunity to debate whether the earth is truly round or flat. Thanks to NBA star Kyrie Irving who has said he believes the earth is flat, the topic has become a major source of jokes and debate on the internet.

To see more of Fischers amazing photography from the International Space Station, visit his Twitter page here.

To learn more about Fisher, read his NASA biography here.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin

See more here:

NASA astronaut shares spectacular video of San Diego from space - The San Diego Union-Tribune

A Kickstarter campaign seeks to restore the Apollo Mission Control Center.

With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission approaching in 2019, retired NASA staffers are working with Space Center Houston to restore the originalApollo Mission Control Centerand transform it into a museum.

A newKickstarter campaign, launched July 20, is trying to raise part of the money needed for the $5 million restoration.

The start of the Kickstarter campaign marked the 49th anniversary of astronaut Neil Armstrong becoming the first human to step onto the moon's surface as part of theApollo 11 mission.

Webster, Texas -- home to various aerospace companies working on NASA's current deep-space missions -- will match up to $400,000 raised by the Kickstarter campaign. That's in addition to the $3.1 million the town has already pledged.

For anyone interested in donating to the project, Space Center Houston is offering perks on Kickstarter including a mission patch designed by "Star Trek: The Next Generation" set designer Michael Okuda, a private tour of the Mission Control room with Apollo-era flight director Gene Kranz, lunch with Apollo flight controllers and an invitation to a VIP event with "The Martian" author Andy Weir.

As of Monday, $300,500 has been pledged -- well beyond its original $250,000 Kickstarter goal. The fundraiser ends August 19.

10

New book stars NASA's early manned space missions (pictures)

Original post:

Apollo Mission Control team seeks to restore NASA site - CNET

NASA has selected nine proposals in its Explorers Program to study the Sun and general space environment. There are five Heliophysics Small Explorer mission proposals, two Explorer Missions of Opportunity Small Complete Mission (SCM) proposals, and one Partner Mission of Opportunity (PMO).

According to the press release, the Heliophysics Small Explorer missions and Explorer Missions of Opportunity SCM missions will be have specific explorations, including weather in the near-Earth environment, magnetic energy, solar wind, and heating and energy released in the atmosphere. The mission in the PMO category will be more focused on creating space instruments.

Ultimately, these missions will all help scientists better understand the influence of the Sun on our solar system, including the planets and the space between them.

The Heliophysics Small explorer proposals will be given $1.25 million for an 11-month mission concept study. Those missions are: Mechanisms of Energetic Mass Ejection eXplorer (MEME-X), Focusing Optics X-ray Solar Image (FOXSI), Multi-Slit Solar Explorer (MUSE), The Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS), and the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission.

MEME-X will study how charged particles leave Earths atmosphere, while TRACERS will study Earths magnetopause, which is the boundary between our planets magnetosphere and the incoming charged particles of the solar wind. FOXSI and MUSE will focus on the Suns atmosphere and the mysterious solar corona, which is only visible from Earth during a total solar eclipse. PUNCH will take a closer look at the solar wind.

The two Each Mission of Opportunity SCM proposals will be given $400,000 for an 11-month concept study. Those proposals are: the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) and the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) mission.

SunRISE will create a radio telescope array from miniature satellites to study how the Sun releases particles into space. AWE will look back at Earth to study a phenomenon known as gravity waves, which transport energy throughout a planets atmosphere.

The final proposal is in the Partner Mission of Opportunity category and will study three instruments on the Turbulence Heating ObserveR (THOR) mission, a mission that the European Space Agency is considering. THOR looks at how particles in space gain and lose energy.

Excerpt from:

NASA has selected nine proposals for Explorers Program - Astronomy Magazine

July 31, 2017 by Eric Villard The Deep Space Network comprises three ground stations located about 120 degrees apart on Earth -- one each in Canberra, Australia; Madrid, Spain; and Goldstone, California. This photo shows an antenna at the DSN site in California. Credit: NASA-JPL/Doug Ellison

NASA called, and the Webb telescope responded. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently completed its Ground Segment Test Number 1 (GSEG-1), for the first time confirming successful end-to-end communication between the telescope and its mission operations center.

GSEG-1, which completed on June 20, tested all of the communications systems required to support the telescope's launch, commissioning and normal operations once it is in orbit. The test showed successful end-to-end communication between the Webb telescope's spacecraft bus, currently located at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, and the telescope's mission operations center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Before this test, the flight operations team had only verified communication with the telescope piecemealin several smaller tests that were not end-to-end.

"This was the first time all the different parts worked together at the same time, and this was the first time it was tested against the actual spacecraft flight hardware," explained Alan Johns, ground segment and operations manager for the Webb telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

During the test, the team sent the same command procedures to the telescope that will be sent during its nearly 1 million mile journey to its orbit at the second Lagrange point, known as L2. The team verified the configuration of the telescope's onboard computers and also received telemetry from the telescope, including science data and health monitoring data.

"This is a great milestone not only for the telescope but for the industry team, who worked seamlessly together from coast to coast to successfully complete the GSEG-1," said Scott Willoughby, Northrop Grumman vice president and program manager for the Webb telescope. "This test puts us one step closer in preparing for the Webb telescope for launch."

The ground segment test consisted of two partsthe Space Network (SN) portion and the Deep Space Network (DSN) portion.

The eight?hour?long SN portion of the test, completed May 24, tested all of the communications systems required during Webb's launch phase. During this portion of the test, the team successfully exchanged commands and telemetry with the telescope using NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) network.

The 13?hour?long DSN portion of the test, completed June 20, tested communications systems that will be used from the end of Webb's launch phase through the end of the mission. During this portion of the test, the team successfully exchanged commands, telemetry and ranging data with the telescope, as well as offloaded information from the telescope's data recorders.

"DSN is our workhorse for the life of the mission," said Alan Johns. "It got tested at every rate, every setting, and every possible permutation, and it worked just great."

The DSN comprises three ground stations, located about 120 longitudinal degrees apart from each other on Earthone each in Canberra, Australia; Madrid, Spain; and Goldstone, California. The placement of these guarantees the Webb telescope will be able to contact at least one station at all times, to remain in constant communication with Earth. For this test, the telescope communicated with a specially designed trailer that mimics these ground stations, rather than the ground stations themselves.

The success of the test did not catch Johns off guard. "I felt pretty good that this test was going to be as successful as it turned out to be," Johns said. "A lot of people put in a lot of hours, and the thoroughness that goes into checking every command parameter and every telemetry point paid off in the actual execution of the test."

Another communications test will take place at the telescope's planned launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, about a month before launch in late 2018. This test will demonstrate the expected connectivity with the telescope at first contact with it, which will occur approximately three-and-a-half minutes after launch.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the world's most advanced space observatory. This engineering marvel is designed to unravel some of the greatest mysteries of the universe, from discovering the first stars and galaxies that formed after the big bang to studying the atmospheres of planets around other stars. It is a joint project of NASA, ESA (the European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Explore further: Image: James Webb Telescope tested in thermal vacuum chamber

NASA's Johnson Space Center's "Chamber A" in Houston is an enormous thermal vacuum testing chamber and now appears to be opening it's "mouth" to take in NASA's James Webb Space Telescope for testing.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will undergo its last cryogenic test before it is launched into space in 2018.

Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the environmental portion of vibration testing and prepared for the acoustic test on the telescope.

It's springtime and the deployed primary mirror of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope looks like a spring flower in full bloom.

Though the Webb telescope will be enveloped in darkness, the engineers testing the telescope will be far from blind. "There are many thermal sensors that monitor temperatures of the telescope and the support equipment," said ...

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the acoustic and vibration portions of environmental testing on the telescope. These tests are merely two of the many ...

Humanity's farthest and longest-lived spacecraft, Voyager 1 and 2, achieve 40 years of operation and exploration this August and September. Despite their vast distance, they continue to communicate with NASA daily, still ...

Hidden from our sight, the Westerhout 43 star-forming region is revealed in full glory in this far-infrared image from ESA's Herschel space observatory. This giant cloud, where a multitude of massive stars come to life in ...

Proxima b, an Earth-size planet right outside our solar system in the habitable zone of its star, may not be able to keep a grip on its atmosphere, leaving the surface exposed to harmful stellar radiation and reducing its ...

Scientists dealt a blow Monday to the quest for organisms inhabiting worlds besides Earth, saying our planet was unusual in its ability to host liquid waterthe key ingredient for life.

A pair of researchers with Institut Universitaire de France has found more evidence of a large evaporative event in the moon's past. In their paper published on the open access site Science Advances, Chizu Kato and Frdric ...

Many rock stars don't like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This "heavy metal" supernova ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

Excerpt from:

NASA tests the Webb telescope's communication skills - Phys.org - Phys.Org

By NASA // August 1, 2017

ABOVE VIDEO:This video shows in unprecedented detail how Greenlands massive Helheim Glacier has changed over 20 years, using data from instruments like the Airborne Topographic Mapper laser altimeter and the Digital Mapping System cameras, which fly every year on IceBridge missions, and satellite data form the Canadian Space Agencys Radarsat Satellite. IceBridge plans to return to Helheim again in 2018 to carry on its annual survey.

(NASA) Helheim Glacier is the fastest flowing glacier along the eastern edge of Greenland Ice Sheet and one of the islands largest ocean-terminating rivers of ice.

Named after the Vikings world of the dead, Helheim has kept scientists on their toes for the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2005, Helheim quickly increased the rate at which it dumped ice to the sea, while also rapidly retreating inland- a behavior also seen in other glaciers around Greenland.

Since then, the ice loss has slowed down and the glaciers front has partially recovered, readvancing by about 2 miles of the more than 4 miles it had initially retreated.

NASA has compiled a time series of airborne observations of Helheims changes into a new visualization that illustrates the complexity of studying Earths changing ice sheets.

NASA uses satellites and airborne sensors to track variations in polar ice year after year to figure out whats driving these changes and what impact they will have in the future on global concerns like sea level rise.

ABOVE VIDEO: Research on the Greenland Ice Sheet provides updated estimates of past and present ice loss. Here, video captures a huge calving event at Helheim glacier, southeast Greenland.

Since 1997, NASA has collected data over Helheim Glacier almost every year during annual airborne surveys of the Greenland Ice Sheet using an airborne laser altimeter called the Airborne Topographic Mapper (ATM).

Since 2009 these surveys have continued as part of Operation IceBridge, NASAs ongoing airborne survey of polar ice and its longest-running airborne mission. ATM measures the elevation of the glacier along a swath as the plane files along the middle of the glacier.

By comparing the changes in the height of the glacier surface from year to year, scientists estimate how much ice the glacier has lost.

The animation begins by showing the NASA P-3 plane collecting elevation data in 1998. The laser instrument maps the glaciers surface in a circular scanning pattern, firing laser shots that reflect off the ice and are recorded by the lasers detectors aboard the airplane.

The instrument measures the time it takes for the laser pulses to travel down to the ice and back to the aircraft, enabling scientists to measure the height of the ice surface. In the animation, the laser data is combined with three-dimensional images created from IceBridges high-resolution camera system.

ABOVE VIDEO:NASA research found that large crevasses provide aquifer water upstream of Greenlands Helheim Glacier with a clear escape to the ocean. This discovery helps confirm that the water, which is held in a layer of crunchy, granular snow called firn, contributes to sea level rise.

The animation then switches to data collected in 2013, showing how the surface elevation and position of the calving front (the edge of the glacier, from where it sheds ice) have changed over those 15 years.

Helheim is about 4 miles wide on average, but IceBridge only collects data along an 820-foot swath in the center of the glacier.

Because we can measure only about 4 percent of the width of the glacier, we fly the center line, which we know, from other glaciers, is reasonably representative of the glacier as a whole, said Kristin Poinar, a polar scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

We have navigation systems on board that help us fly over the same center line each year, so we get a reliable overlap of measurements.

Helheims calving front retreated about 2.5 miles between 1998 and 2013. It also thinned by around 330 feet during that period, one of the fastest thinning rates in Greenland.

ABOVE VIDEO:Flying Over Helheim Glacier, Greenland.

The calving front of the glacier most likely was perched on a ledge in the bedrock in 1998 and then something altered its equilibrium, said Joe MacGregor, IceBridge deputy project scientist.

One of the most likely culprits is a change in ocean circulation or temperature, such that slightly warmer water entered into the fjord, melted a bit more ice and disturbed the glaciers delicate balance of forces.

As the front of the ice retreated, it showed more and more of its face to the warm ocean and this became a vicious cycle of retreat, Poinar said.

We see this behavior over and over again in glaciers that flow all the way into the ocean. As such a glacier starts to move faster, it sucks more ice into the ocean and the net result is that the glacier gets thinner and retreats farther.

This whole process continues until the glacier can find another ledge to anchor to and restabilize.

As the glacier evolved, so did the ATM instrument flown aboard the aircraft. At the beginning of the survey, the whole system weighed over 4,000 pounds now its only around 400 pounds, so scientists can deploy it in smaller planes when needed.

Back in the 1990s, the laser fired 2,000 pulses per second; now it transmits 10,000 pulses per second and the pulses themselves are also almost ten times shorter, which allows for denser, more precise measurements.

The accuracy of the lasers elevation measurements has improved from about 6 inches in the 1990s to less than 2 inches during the IceBridge era because of improvements in the technology, said Michael Studinger, principal investigator for the laser instrument team.

That allows us to do more science: We can now go look at areas of Greenland that are experiencing smaller changes because we know that our measurements resolve much finer details than in the old days.

We now have a two-decade-long, reliable time series of elevation measurements in Greenland that allows us to link to the data from many other instruments, such as NASAs Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite missions or the European Space Agencys CryoSat-2 satellite, Studinger said.

Having such a long time series is important when you look at changes in the ice sheets, and the ATMs is the longest and most consistent elevation time series thats out there.

CLICK HERE FOR SPACE NEWS FROM NASA

Click here to contribute your news or announcements Free

See the original post:

VIDEO: NASA Compiles Time Series of Airborne Observations of Helheim Glacier Through New Visualization Illustration - SpaceCoastDaily.com

High up in the clear blue noontime sky, the sun appears to be much the same day-in, day-out, year after year.

But astronomers have long known that this is not true. The sun does change. Properly-filtered telescopes reveal a fiery disk often speckled with dark sunspots. Sunspots are strongly magnetized, and they crackle with solar flaresmagnetic explosions that illuminate Earth with flashes of X-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation. The sun is a seething mass of activity.

Until its not. Every 11 years or so, sunspots fade away, bringing a period of relative calm.

This is called solar minimum, says Dean Pesnell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. And its a regular part of the sunspot cycle.

The sun is heading toward solar minimum now. Sunspot counts were relatively high in 2014, and now they are sliding toward a low point expected in 2019-2020.

While intense activity such as sunspots and solar flares subside during solar minimum, that doesnt mean the sun becomes dull. Solar activity simply changes form.

For instance, says Pesnell, during solar minimum we can see the development of long-lived coronal holes.

Coronal holes are vast regions in the suns atmosphere where the suns magnetic field opens up and allows streams of solar particles to escape the sun as the fast solar wind.

Pesnell says We see these holes throughout the solar cycle, but during solar minimum, they can last for a long time - six months or more. Streams of solar wind flowing from coronal holes can cause space weather effects near Earth when they hit Earths magnetic field. These effects can include temporary disturbances of the Earths magnetosphere, called geomagnetic storms, auroras, and disruptions to communications and navigation systems.

During solar minimum, the effects of Earths upper atmosphere on satellites in low Earth orbit changes too.

Normally Earths upper atmosphere is heated and puffed up by ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Satellites in low Earth orbit experience friction as they skim through the outskirts of our atmosphere. This friction creates drag, causing satellites to lose speed over time and eventually fall back to Earth. Drag is a good thing, for space junk; natural and man-made particles floating in orbit around Earth. Drag helps keep low Earth orbit clear of debris.

But during solar minimum, this natural heating mechanism subsides. Earths upper atmosphere cools and, to some degree, can collapse. Without a normal amount of drag, space junk tends to hang around.

There are unique space weather effects that get stronger during solar minimum. For example, the number of galactic cosmic rays that reach Earths upper atmosphere increases during solar minimum. Galactic cosmic rays are high energy particles accelerated toward the solar system by distant supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.

Pesnell says that During solar minimum, the suns magnetic field weakens and provides less shielding from these cosmic rays. This can pose an increased threat to astronauts traveling through space.

Solar minimum brings about many changes to our sun, but less solar activity doesnt make the sun and our space environment any less interesting.

For more news about the changes ahead, stay tuned to science.nasa.gov

Originally posted here:

Solar Minimum is Coming | Science Mission Directorate

Scientists have discovered a new planet with the mass of Earth, orbiting its star at the same distance that we orbit our sun. The planet is likely far too cold to be habitable for life as we know it, however, because its star is so faint. But the discovery adds to scientists' understanding of the types of planetary systems that exist beyond our own.

"This 'iceball' planet is the lowest-mass planet ever found through microlensing," said Yossi Shvartzvald, a NASA postdoctoral fellow based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and lead author of a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Microlensing is a technique that facilitates the discovery of distant objects by using background stars as flashlights. When a star crosses precisely in front of a bright star in the background, the gravity of the foreground star focuses the light of the background star, making it appear brighter. A planet orbiting the foreground object may cause an additional blip in the star's brightness. In this case, the blip only lasted a few hours. This technique has found the most distant known exoplanets from Earth, and can detect low-mass planets that are substantially farther from their stars than Earth is from our sun.

The newly discovered planet, called OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb, aids scientists in their quest to figure out the distribution of planets in our galaxy. An open question is whether there is a difference in the frequency of planets in the Milky Way's central bulge compared to its disk, the pancake-like region surrounding the bulge. OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb is located in the disk, as are two planets previously detected through microlensing by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

"Although we only have a handful of planetary systems with well-determined distances that are this far outside our solar system, the lack of Spitzer detections in the bulge suggests that planets may be less common toward the center of our galaxy than in the disk," said Geoff Bryden, astronomer at JPL and co-author of the study.

For the new study, researchers were alerted to the initial microlensing event by the ground-based Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) survey, managed by the University of Warsaw in Poland. The planetary signal was recognized in real time by another ground-based survey, the Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics (MOA). Study authors used the Korea Microlensing Telescope Network (KMTNet), operated by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and Spitzer, to track the event from Earth and space.

KMTNet consists of three wide-field telescopes: one in Chile, one in Australia, and one in South Africa. When scientists from the Spitzer team received the OGLE alert, they realized the potential for a planetary discovery. The microlensing event alert was only a couple of hours before Spitzer's targets for the week were to be finalized, but it made the cut.

With both KMTNet and Spitzer observing the event, scientists had two vantage points from which to study the objects involved, as though two eyes separated by a great distance were viewing it. Having data from these two perspectives allowed them measure the masses of the star and the planet, and the distance to the planetary system.

"We are able to know details about this planet because of the synergy between KMTNet and Spitzer," said Andrew Gould, professor emeritus of astronomy at Ohio State University, Columbus, and study co-author.

Although OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb is about the same mass as Earth, and the same distance from its host star as our planet is from our sun, the similarities may end there.

OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb is nearly 13,000 light-years away and orbits a star so small, scientists aren't sure if it's a star at all. It could be a brown dwarf, a star-like object whose core is not hot enough to generate energy through nuclear fusion. This particular star is only 7.8 percent the mass of our sun, right on the border between being a star and not.

Alternatively, it could be an ultra-cool dwarf star much like TRAPPIST-1, which Spitzer and ground-based telescopes recently revealed to host seven Earth-size planets. Those seven planets all huddle closely around TRAPPIST-1, even closer than Mercury orbits our sun, and they all have potential for liquid water. But OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb, at the sun-Earth distance from a very faint star, would be extremely cold -- likely even colder than Pluto is in our own solar system, such that any surface water would be frozen. A planet would need to orbit much closer to the tiny, faint star to receive enough light to maintain liquid water on its surface.

Ground-based telescopes available today are not able to find smaller planets than this one using the microlensing method. A highly sensitive space telescope would be needed to spot smaller bodies in microlensing events. NASA's upcoming Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), planned for launch in the mid-2020s, will have this capability.

"One of the problems with estimating how many planets like this are out there is that we have reached the lower limit of planet masses that we can currently detect with microlensing," Shvartzvald said. "WFIRST will be able to change that."

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit:

http://spitzer.caltech.edu

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

News Media Contact

2017-123

Read this article:

News | 'Iceball' Planet Discovered Through Microlensing

A NASA-led and NASA-sponsored study of potential future missions to the mysterious "ice giant" planets Uranus and Neptune has been released -- the first in a series of mission studies NASA will conduct in support of the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The results of this and future studies will be used as the Decadal Survey deliberates on NASA's planetary science priorities from 2022-2032. The study identifies the scientific questions an ice giant mission should address, and discusses various instruments, spacecraft, flight-paths and technologies that could be used.

"This study argues the importance of exploring at least one of these planets and its entire environment, which includes surprisingly dynamic icy moons, rings and bizarre magnetic fields," said Mark Hofstadter of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, one of the two co-chairs of the science team that produced the report. The European Space Agency (ESA) also participated in the study.

To date, Uranus and Neptune have been visited briefly by one spacecraft, Voyager 2. Voyager rapidly flew by Uranus in 1986 and Neptune in 1989, as part of its grand tour of discovery that previously took it by Jupiter and Saturn.

Said co-chair Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, "We do not know how these planets formed and why they and their moons look the way they do. There are fundamental clues as to how our solar system formed and evolved that can only be found by a detailed study of one, or preferably both, of these planets."

A variety of potential mission concepts are discussed in the study, including orbiters, flybys and probes that would dive into Uranus' atmosphere to study its composition. A narrow-angle camera would send data back to Earth about the ice giants and their moons. Uranus has 27 known moons, while Neptune has 14.

Collectively, Uranus and Neptune are referred to as ice giant planets. In spite of that name, relatively little solid ice is thought to be in them today, but it is believed there is a massive liquid ocean beneath their clouds, which accounts for about two-thirds of their total mass. This makes them fundamentally different from the gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn (which are approximately 85 percent gas by mass), and terrestrial planets like Earth or Mars, which are basically 100 percent rock. It's not clear how or where ice giant planets form, why their magnetic fields are strangely oriented, and what drives geologic activity on some of their moons. These mysteries make them scientifically important, and this importance is enhanced by the discovery that many planets around other stars appear to be similar to our own ice giants.

It is now up to the next decadal survey to recommend science priorities for NASA for the next decade. NASA will then determine if and when to fly a mission that is responsive to those priorities.

The full study (529 pages), as well as a short summary are available at:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/icegiants/mission_study

News Media Contact

2017-171

See the original post here:

News | NASA Completes Study of Future 'Ice Giant' Mission ...

July 31, 2017July 29, 2017 News Lunar crater testbed. (Credits: NASA/Uland Wong)

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (NASA PR) Things look different on the Moon. Literally.

Because the Moon isnt big enough to hold a significant atmosphere, there is no air and there are no particles in the air to reflect and scatter sunlight. On Earth, shadows in otherwise bright environments are dimly lit with indirect light from these tiny reflections. That lighting provides enough detail that we get an idea of shapes, holes and other features that could be obstacles to someone or some robot trying to maneuver in shadow.

(more)

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) NASA scientists are excited about the upcoming close flyby of a small asteroid and plan to use its upcoming October close approach to Earth as an opportunity not only for science, but to test NASAs network of observatories and scientists who work with planetary defense.

(more)

WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) Through exploration, NASA is broadening horizons, enhancing knowledge, and improving our way of life. Our efforts to explore and discover the universe are increasing in both scope and duration. The Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, soon will launch the Orion spacecraft and its crew deeper into space than ever before. Expanding humanitys presence farther into the solar system also requires advancements in the development of habitats and the systems to keep astronauts safe as they live and work in deep space for long periods of time.

(more)

HOUSTON (NASA PR) After a six-hour spaceflight, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) arrived at the International Space Station at 5:54 p.m. EDT Friday to continue important scientific research in the orbiting laboratory.

(more)

By Douglas Messier Managing Editor

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a modest cut to NASAs budget for fiscal year 2018 (FY 2018) that splits the difference between the cut requested by the Trump Administration and the increase approved by House appropriators.

The $19.53 billion provided is $ below the agencys current budget but above the $19 billion the administration wants to spend. The House Appropriations Committee has approved $19.87 billion for the space agency.

Senate appropriators rejected efforts by the Administration to significantly cut NASAs Earth Science budget and to end the agencys Education program. The House has made an even deeper cut in Earth Science than the administration proposed but also has rejected ending the Education program.

(more)

SYDNEY (Freelance.com PR) Freelancer.com and NASAs Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation (CoECI), through the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), have released the latest in a series of challenges to crowdsource solutions for new capabilities for space exploration.

NASA has called on professionals from anywhere in the world to submit entries to three challenges including:

(more)

Boeing would conduct the first orbital test of its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft in June 2018 in the latest Commercial Crew Program schedule unveiled by NASA this week.

The automated flight test to the International Space Station (ISS) would be followed by a crewed flight test to ISS in August 2018. If all goes well, CST-100 Starliner would be certified by NASA to carry crews to the orbiting outpost in October 2018.

(more)

Leonardo DiCaprio is teaming with National Geographic for a reboot of Tom Wolfes The Right Stuff.

The cabler is teaming with the actors Appian Way Productions banner and Warner Horizon Scripted Television to develop a scripted adaptation of Tom Wolfes best-seller The Right Stuff, with the goal of having a multiple-season drama series.

Will Staples will pen the script and executive produce the project that is set in 1958 and explores astronauts and their families as they move from the Mojave Desert to the edges of space, tracking their instant celebrity and, at some point in subsequent seasons, the moon landing.

DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson of Appian Way will exec produce alongside Staples and Michael Hampton, who shepherded the drama. The potential series will use Wolfes book as a starting point.

Read the full story.

For all the latest space news, please follow Parabolic Arc on Twitter.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies today approved a $53.4 billion spending bill that includes a decrease in NASAs budget.

The $19.5 billion budget for the space agency is $124 million below the FY2017 enacted level and $437 million above the amount requested by the Trump Administration. Earlier this month, the House Appropriations Committee approved $19.88 billion for NASA.

(more)

SpaceX plans to conduct an automated flight test of its Dragon 2 crew spacecraft to the International Space Station in February 2018 , followed by a similar test with a crew four months later in June

That is the latest schedule presented to the NASA Advisory Council this week by agency officials. If the schedule holds and the tests go well, the Dragon 2 will be certified to carry astronauts to the station in September of next year.

In addition to the two flight tests, SpaceX will need to validate Dragon 2s propulsion module, certify the parachute system, and conduct an in-flight abort test before it receives certification for the vehicle.

(more)

My recent report on NASA decision not to release a public summary of its investigation into the Falcon 9 failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo ship has attracted some attention on various other websites. Ive gotten some criticism there and also here for not understanding that the results of NASAs investigations on commercial crew are confidential.

Fair enough. However, I was never told this by NASA in my multiple communications with the agency when I inquired about the summary last fall. In fact, they represented exactly the opposite.

Just so there is no confusion on this point, Im reproducing the email responses I received from NASA when I inquired about this issue last fall as well as the one I received earlier in July.

(more)

The sharp eye of NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has captured the tiny moon Phobos during its orbital trek around Mars. Because the moon is so small, it appears star-like in the Hubble pictures.

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) Over the course of 22 minutes, Hubble took 13 separate exposures, allowing astronomers to create a time-lapse video showing the diminutive moons orbital path. The Hubble observations were intended to photograph Mars, and the moons cameo appearance was a bonus.

(more)

HOUSTON (NanoRacks PR) The NanoRacks Airlock Module design continues to mature as NASAs Johnson Space Center successfully ran testing on a NASA-built full-scale mockup of the Airlock in their Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL).

The tests confirmed that spacewalking astronauts will be able to successfully maneuver around the Airlock structure and mounted external payloads. Astronauts will be able to do this with the assistance of handrails, which have been strategically placed by the NanoRacks design team.

(more)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 20, 2017 (Lockheed Martin PR) Refurbishing a shuttle-era cargo container used to transfer cargo to the International Space Station, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is prototyping a deep space habitat for NASA at Kennedy Space Center. This prototype will integrate evolving technologies to keep astronauts safe while onboard and operate the spacecraft autonomously when unoccupied.

(more)

During an appearance at the International Space Station Research & Development Conference on Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said plans for propulsive crew Dragon landings and Red Dragon missions to Mars had been scrapped, downplayed the probability that the first Falcon Heavy launch will succeed, and even had a good word to say about the moon.

Here are notes from the talk.

State of Space Exploration

(more)

See the rest here:

NASA Parabolic Arc

NASAis using the approach of asteroid 2012 TC4 to test its detection and tracking systems for Near-Earth Objects (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Whether a potential asteroid strike is a Chelyabinsk chaos-causer or a Cretaceous world-ender, it's definitely an advantage to have some forewarning. NASA has been working towards that goal for years, establishing the Planetary Defense Coordination Office to detect and track potentially hazardous space rocks and coordinate response plans with the US government if an impact threat arises. Now, NASA will test out its detection equipment on a known asteroid that's due to buzz Earth in October.

This won't be asteroid 2012 TC4's first visit: it was discovered in 2012 when it whipped past at about a quarter of the distance between Earth and the Moon. Soon after, it vanished into the inky darkness of space, too small and faint to be detected again in the years since. But for the week or so that it was visible, its orbit was plotted out, telling us that TC4 will swing by again on October 12, 2017.

UPGRADE TO NEW ATLAS PLUS

More than 1,500 New Atlas Plus subscribers directly support our journalism, and get access to our premium ad-free site and email newsletter. Join them for just US$19 a year.

The data isn't complete though, and astronomers can't be sure of its exact path, only knowing it will brush past within 4,200 to 170,000 miles (6,760 to 274,000 km) of Earth. While NASA stresses that the asteroid will not collide with the Earth, narrowing that window is important and serves as a great learning opportunity and test run for the entire international network.

"This is the perfect target for such an exercise because while we know the orbit of 2012 TC4 well enough to be absolutely certain it will not impact Earth, we haven't established its exact path just yet," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS). "It will be incumbent upon the observatories to get a fix on the asteroid as it approaches, and work together to obtain follow-up observations than make more refined asteroid orbit determinations possible."

As the asteroid approaches Earth over the next few months, astronomers will detect it with large telescopes and take more precise measurements of its path. This task will give the whole system a solid workout before any actual hazards are found hurtling towards us.

"This is a team effort that involves more than a dozen observatories, universities and labs across the globe so we can collectively learn the strengths and limitations of our near-Earth object observation capabilities," says Vishnu Reddy, leader of the 2012 TC4 observation campaign. "This effort will exercise the entire system, to include the initial and follow-up observations, precise orbit determination, and international communications."

TC4 measures between 30 and 100 ft (9 and 30 m) wide, meaning it's roughly the same size or larger than the 66-ft (20-m) Chelyabinsk meteor that caused widespread damage and injury in 2013. That event highlighted how vital it is to spot any potentially hazardous objects early enough to intervene and NASA is currently working on how we might deflect such a threat.

Source: JPL

Excerpt from:

NASA will test its planetary defense network on approaching asteroid - New Atlas

fox6now.com

Wisconsin cork company helping with NASA project | The ... Sacramento Bee A southeastern Wisconsin cork company is among more than a dozen manufactures in the state that are working on a NASA venture into space. Wisconsin cork company helping with NASA projectfox6now.com all 3 news articles »

Read more here:

Wisconsin cork company helping with NASA project | The ... - Sacramento Bee

Whoever broke into an Ohio museum and stole a solid-gold replica of the Apollo 11 lunar module likely intends to melt it down for the value of the gold instead of trying to sell what could be a collectible worth millions of dollars, said a retired NASA agent who has helped recover stolen moon rocks worth millions of dollars.

The 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) replica was discovered stolen after an alarm sounded just before midnight Friday at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, the boyhood home of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon in July 1969.

Replicas made by the French jeweler Cartier were presented to Armstrong and fellow Apollo 11 space voyagers Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in Paris shortly after they returned to Earth.

The NASA agent, Joseph Gutheinz Jr., noted the thief or thieves left behind a moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission that's much larger than other rocks given away or loaned to museums or foreign countries that could easily be smuggled out of the country, where a geologist could verity its authenticity. He said it would be worth millions of dollars to a collector into space items.

"Either they didn't have easy access to the moon rock, or they weren't into collectibles," Gutheinz said Sunday. "They were into turning a quick buck."

Gutheinz ran an undercover sting operation in 1998 that led to the recovery of a moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission originally given to the Honduran government. The seller offered the rock to Gutheinz for $5 million. Now an attorney in Texas, he more recently has led a group of criminal justice students from the University Phoenix in a project that has identified 79 missing lunar samples and rocks from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 missions.

A lunar collection bag Armstrong carried on the moon sold for $1.8 million, a value enhanced by tiny amounts of moon dust engrained in the bag, at an auction of space items earlier this month at Sotheby's in New York.

It will be difficult to catch the thief if the replica is melted down, which Gutheinz said would be a "damn shame." It's unclear how much gold the replica contains.

The FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation are assisting Wapakoneta police in the theft investigation. Police have said they aren't able to place a value on the replica lunar module. No updates on the investigation have been released and authorities haven't said whether there were surveillance cameras in or around the museum that might have recorded the theft.

Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82.

See the article here:

Ex-NASA agent fears gold lunar module will be melted down - ABC News

It doesnt look like NASA is doing too well. Recent Congressional reports suggest that NASA has no idea how to get to Mars or anywhere else for that matter.

On July 15, NASA announced it was one step closer to achieving its Mars 2020 mission after passing a major milestone, according to Space News. The mission is set to send a rover to the red planet in mid-2020 for a February 2021 landing. The Mars 2020 rover is the first step in a potential multi-mission campaign to return carefully selected and sealed samples of Martian rocks and soil to Earth, said Geoff Yoder, NASAs acting associate administrator for science, in a statement.

However, NASA was grilled on its Mars 2020 mission at a Congressional hearing on July 20. Congressmen wanted to know why the mission will be so expensivecurrent estimates put the bill at $2.1 billion plus another $300 million to keep the operation running for one year on Mars. That is $900 million more than NASAs original estimate, and they are only 70 percent sure that that amount of money is enough for the mission. As if that wasnt enough, the Mars 2020 Rover is behind schedule, putting its carefully calculated launch window in jeopardy, according to the Government Accountability Office.

In addition, a new review by the Planetary Society claims that NASA does not have the funds to send the rovers it currently has on Mars back to Earth. It seems clear from this analysis that NASA is barely keeping the Mars Exploration Program on life support, the review stated.

Just last week, NASA unveiled a new Mars rover at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. But the rover - which weighs 5,500 pounds and is is almost 24 feet long and 14 feet tall - was never built with the intention of going to Mars. Instead, its a kind of PR stunt that aims to strike curiosity in the minds of the young children who will come to see it. If we get a single scientist out of this effort, it will have been worth it, Therrin Protze, chief operating officer of the visitor center, told BuzzFeed News. You are basically looking at a concept vehicle that is intended to be inspiring to future generations.

Last week, on July 19, Elon Musk, who is funding his own project to send humans to Mars, spoke at the International Space Station and even he seemed to understand that the trip to Mars will take longer than many might hope. He said that if you want to get the public fired up, you've got to put a base on the moon," adding that it would be the "continuance to the dream" of the Apollo missions, according to CNBC.

These reports come just as Trump has revived the National Space Council, which, is a panel meant to coordinate U.S. scientific, military, and commercial space plans, handing the job to Vice President Mike Pence, according to BuzzFeed News. That was the same ceremony that had astronaut Buzz Aldrin looking super uncomfortable as he sat next to Trump when a joke about infinity and beyond flew right over the Presidents head.

Although NASA and their programs are certainly exciting and important for the U.S., it seems things are looking a bit messy on their end right now. Heres to hoping they get it together sometime soon.

Originally posted here:

A New Report Shows NASA Can't Afford to Send People to Mars ... - Complex

North Dakota students work with NASA to improve 3D printing Sacramento Bee Students at North Dakota State University in Fargo are working with NASA scientists to develop a better technique for 3D printing in space exploration. The 11 students working with a NASA field center in California called Jet Propulsion Laboratory ... and more »

The rest is here:

North Dakota students work with NASA to improve 3D printing - Sacramento Bee

By NASA // July 29, 2017

ABOVE VIDEO:Rocket Launch of Soyuz MS-05 with 3 Crew Members in Stunning Night Launch.

(NASA) After a six-hour spaceflight, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) arrived at the International Space Station at 5:54 p.m. EDT Friday to continue important scientific research in the orbiting laboratory.

The three crewmates launched aboard the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:41 a.m. (9:41 p.m. Baikonur time), orbited Earth four times, and docked at the space station.

Following standard pressurization and leak checks, the hatches between the spacecraft and station will be opened.

The arrival of Bresnik, Ryazanskiy and Nespoli restored the stations crew to six people, which includes Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA. The new Expedition 52 crew members will spend more than four months conducting approximately 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences and technology development.

NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) launched aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-05 for a six-hour flight to the International Space Station at 11:41 a.m. on Friday, July 28, 2017 (9:41 p.m. in Baikonur). (NASA Image)

The newly-expanded Expedition 52 crew soon will conduct new science investigations arriving on SpaceXs 12th NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission targeted to launch in August.

Investigations the crew will work on include a study developed by the Michael J. Fox Foundation of the pathology of Parkinsons disease to aid in the development of therapies for patients on Earth.

The crew will use the special nature of microgravity in a new lung tissue study to advance understanding of how stem cells work and pave the way for further use of the microgravity environment in stem cell research.

Expedition astronauts also will assemble and deploy a microsatellite investigation seeking to validate the concept of using microsatellites in low-Earth orbit to support critical operations, such as providing lower-cost Earth imagery in time-sensitive situations such as tracking severe weather and detecting natural disasters.

During their expedition, the crew members also are scheduled to receive an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft launched from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and a Russian Progress resupply mission, each delivering several tons of food, fuel, supplies and research such as an investigation to demonstrate the merits of manufacturing fiber optic filaments in microgravity.

After a six-hour spaceflight, Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) (left), Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos (center) and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik (right) arrived at the International Space Station at 5:54 p.m. EDT Friday to continue important scientific research in the orbiting laboratory. (NASA Image)

Whitson, Fischer and Yurchikhin are scheduled to remain aboard the station until September. Shortly after their departure, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will join the Expedition 53 crew. Bresnik, Ryazanskiy and Nespoli are scheduled to return in December.

For more than 16 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space.

A global endeavor, more than 200 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 1,900 research investigations from researchers in more than 95 countries.

CLICK HERE FOR NASA AND SPACE NEWS

The Russian Soyuz MS-05 carrying NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) docked to the International Space Station at 5:54 p.m. on Friday, July 28, 2017. (NASA Image)

Click here to contribute your news or announcements Free

Excerpt from:

NASA Astronaut Randy Bresnik, Crew Arrive At International Space Station - SpaceCoastDaily.com

Saturn and its moon Titan. Credit: NASA

NASA scientists have definitively detected the chemical acrylonitrile in the atmosphere of Saturns moon Titan, a place that has long intrigued scientists investigating the chemical precursors of life.

On Earth, acrylonitrile, also known as vinyl cyanide, is useful in the manufacture of plastics. Under the harsh conditions of Saturns largest moon, this chemical is thought to be capable of forming stable, flexible structures similar to cell membranes. Other researchers have previously suggested that acrylonitrile is an ingredient of Titans atmosphere, but they did not report an unambiguous detection of the chemical in the smorgasbord of organic, or carbon-rich, molecules found there.

Now, NASA researchers have identified the chemical fingerprint of acrylonitrile in Titan data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. The team found large quantities of the chemical on Titan, most likely in the stratosphere the hazy part of the atmosphere that gives this moon its brownish-orange color.

We found convincing evidence that acrylonitrile is present in Titans atmosphere, and we think a significant supply of this raw material reaches the surface, said Maureen Palmer, a researcher with the Goddard Center for Astrobiology at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of a July 28, 2017, paper in Science Advances.

Credits: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

The cells of Earths plants and animals would not hold up well on Titan, where surface temperatures average minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius), and lakes brim with liquid methane.

In 2015, university scientists tackled the question of whether any organic molecules likely to be on Titan could, under such inhospitable conditions, form structures similar to the lipid bilayers of living cells on Earth. Thin and flexible, the lipid bilayer is the main component of the cell membrane, which separates the inside of a cell from the outside world. This team identified acrylonitrile as the best candidate.

Those researchers proposed that acrylonitrile molecules could come together as a sheet of material similar to a cell membrane. The sheet could form a hollow, microscopic sphere that they dubbed an azotosome. This sphere could serve as a tiny storage and transport container, much like the spheres that lipid bilayers can form.

The ability to form a stable membrane to separate the internal environment from the external one is important because it provides a means to contain chemicals long enough to allow them to interact, said Michael Mumma, director of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology, which is funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute. If membrane-like structures could be formed by vinyl cyanide, it would be an important step on the pathway to life on Saturns moon Titan.

The Goddard team determined that acrylonitrile is plentiful in Titans atmosphere, present at concentrations up to 2.8 parts per billion. The chemical is probably most abundant in the stratosphere, at altitudes of at least 125 miles (200 kilometers). Eventually, acrylonitrile makes its way to the cold lower atmosphere, where it condenses and rains out onto the surface.

The researchers calculated how much material could be deposited in Ligeia Mare, Titans second-largest lake, which occupies roughly the same surface area as Earths Lake Huron and Lake Michigan together. Over the lifetime of Titan, the team estimated, Ligeia Mare could have accumulated enough acrylonitrile to form about 10 million azotosomes in every milliliter, or quarter-teaspoon, of liquid. Thats compared to roughly a million bacteria per milliliter of coastal ocean water on Earth.

The key to detecting Titans acrylonitrile was to combine 11 high-resolution data sets from ALMA. The team retrieved them from an archive of observations originally intended to calibrate the amount of light being received by the telescope array.

In the combined data set, Palmer and her colleagues identified three spectral lines that match the acrylonitrile fingerprint. This finding comes a decade after other researchers inferred the presence of acrylonitrile from observations made by the mass spectrometer on NASAs Cassini spacecraft.

The detection of this elusive, astrobiologically relevant chemical is exciting for scientists who are eager to determine if life could develop on icy worlds such as Titan, said Goddard scientist Martin Cordiner, senior author on the paper. This finding adds an important piece to our understanding of the chemical complexity of the solar system.

Read more from the original source:

NASA Finds Moon of Saturn Has Chemical That Could Form 'Membranes' - Astrobiology Magazine (registration)

This photo depicts the safe flyby of asteroid 2012 TC4 as it passes under Earth on Oct. 12, 2017. While scientists cannot yet predict exactly how close it will approach, they are certain it will come no closer than 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers) from Earth's surface.

This photo depicts the safe flyby of asteroid 2012 TC4 as it passes under Earth on Oct. 12, 2017. While scientists cannot yet predict exactly how close it will approach, they are certain it will come no closer

No photos of asteroid 2012 TC4 exist, but this image of Itokawa, another near-Earth asteroid, helps visualize its approximate size: next to Itokawa, which is a third of a mile long, TC4 would appear about the same size as the 'bunny tail' feature visible on the left.

No photos of asteroid 2012 TC4 exist, but this image of Itokawa, another near-Earth asteroid, helps visualize its approximate size: next to Itokawa, which is a third of a mile long, TC4 would appear about the

On Oct. 12, 2017, asteroid 2012 TC4 will safely fly past Earth. Even though scientists cannot yet predict exactly how close it will approach, they are certain it will come no closer to Earth than 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers).

On Oct. 12, 2017, asteroid 2012 TC4 will safely fly past Earth. Even though scientists cannot yet predict exactly how close it will approach, they are certain it will come no closer to Earth than 4,200 miles

GALLERY: NASA's costliest space missions

GALLERY: NASA's costliest space missions

Date:2012-`

Mission:Explore Mars.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$2.6 billion

Date:2012-`

Mission:Explore Mars.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$2.6 billion

Date: 1958-1963

Mission: Put an American into Earth's orbit before the Soviet Union.

Cost in 2017 dollars: $2.13 billion

Date: 1958-1963

Mission: Put an American into Earth's orbit before the Soviet Union.

Cost in 2017 dollars: $2.13 billion

Project Gemini

Date:1962-1967

Mission:Develop technology and practice manuevers that would be used to go to the Moon.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$9.4 billion

Project Gemini

Date:1962-1967

Mission:Develop technology and practice manuevers that would be used to go to the Moon.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$9.4 billion

Date:1961-1972

Mission: Land the first humans on the Moon.

Cost in 2017 dollars: $162.4billion

Date:1961-1972

Mission: Land the first humans on the Moon.

Cost in 2017 dollars: $162.4billion

Date:2011-2017

Mission:Explore Jupiter

Cost in 2017 dollars:$1.21 billion

Date:2011-2017

Mission:Explore Jupiter

Cost in 2017 dollars:$1.21 billion

Date:1998-

Mission: Establish a oribiting science laboratory

Cost in 2017 dollars:$148 billion

Date:1998-

Mission: Establish a oribiting science laboratory

Cost in 2017 dollars:$148 billion

Date:1981-2011

Mission:Carry cargo and astronauts into low Earth orbit

Cost in 2017 dollars:$232.7 billion

Date:1981-2011

Mission:Carry cargo and astronauts into low Earth orbit

Cost in 2017 dollars:$232.7 billion

Date:Set to launch in 2018

Mission:Replace the Hubble telescope

Cost in 2017 dollars:$8.8 billion

Date:Set to launch in 2018

Mission:Replace the Hubble telescope

Cost in 2017 dollars:$8.8 billion

Date:1997-2017

Mission:Explore Saturn and its moons.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$4.59 billion

Date:1997-2017

Mission:Explore Saturn and its moons.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$4.59 billion

Date:1977-

Mission:Explore outer planets and beyond.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$3.9 billion

Date:1977-

Mission:Explore outer planets and beyond.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$3.9 billion

Date:1975-1982

Mission:Explore Mars.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$4.5 billion

Date:1975-1982

Mission:Explore Mars.

Cost in 2017 dollars:$4.5 billion

How prepared are we for an asteroid impact? NASA is conducting a test to find out

In the event of an impending asteroid impact, just how prepared are the inhabitants of Earth? NASA hopes to find out in an upcoming exercise using an actual space rock.

The asteroid 2012 TC4 will pass close to Earth as it hurls through the great beyond. As this is astronomy, which deals in light years and universes, close means about 4,200 miles from the planet's surface, at best.

Dozens of observatories, universities and labs around the world will participate in the preparatory exercise on Oct. 12, which is intended to uncover the "strengths and limitations of our planetary defense capabilities," said Vishnu Reddy, a University of Arizona professor and coordinator of the upcoming campaign, in a press release.

NASA has rehearsed preparedness for an asteroid impact in the past, but using only hypothetical impactors. Reddy proposed to enhance the reality of the exercise by centering it around the approach of a real near-Earth asteroid (NEA).

The effort begins by pinning down the NEA's exact path (uncertainty in an asteroid's orbit increases as time passes). Then, various drills, such as deflection, evacuation and disaster relief, will be rehearsed by the coordinating agencies in the hopes of avoiding a future "Armageddon"-esque disaster.

ReadMichelle Robertsons latest storiesandsend her news tips atmrobertson@sfchronicle.com.

Read the original post:

How prepared are we for an asteroid impact? NASA is conducting a test to find out - SFGate

This morning, a trio of astronauts will make their way to the International Space Station, launching on top of a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan. The newcomers will join the three astronauts already living on board the ISS, bringing the total number of crew to six.

The incoming passengers include NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency, and cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos. All three have flown to space before, and are scheduled to stay around six months on the ISS, leaving sometime in December. Theyll be arriving to Earth orbit just ahead of the solar eclipse scheduled for August 21st, which will pass over the continental United States. Bresnik told CBS News that theyll be able to monitor the eclipse, since theyll pass underneath it three times during orbit. We've got special filters for the cameras to take those pictures, Bresnik told CBS News. We'll share it right away with everybody."

The Soyuz is slated to launch today at 11:41AM ET

Bresnik and the others are slated to launch today at 11:41AM ET, or 9:41PM in Kazakhstan, and will spend six hours in orbit before docking with the ISS. Once they arrive, theyll join up with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, as well as NASA astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson. Whitson has been on the ISS for over eight months now, and is set to break the record for spending the most cumulative hours in space of any US astronaut before she leaves the ISS in September.

The new arrival means there will be two cosmonauts on the ISS, along with three NASA astronauts and a crew member from a partnering space agency. Its an unusual mix for the station. Typically, the ISS houses three Russian cosmonauts, and the other three include a mix of NASA astronauts and another international crew member. However, Russia recently decided to reduce the number of cosmonauts on the station to two in order to cut costs. Its only a temporary change until Russia finishes and launches a new segment to the station called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module. But in the meantime, NASA has opted to send an extra crew member to the ISS.

NASAs coverage of the launch is scheduled to begin at 10:45AM ET. Check back to watch the mission live.

Visit link:

Watch an international crew of astronauts launch to the space station today - The Verge

HOUSTONAfter an exhaustive 18-month evaluation process in which an applicant pool of hundreds was narrowed down to the two very buffest candidates, NASA announced Friday that it had chosen a pair of hot, ripped astronauts to take part in the first-ever man-on-man mission to Mars.

Shirtless and oiled-up for their appearance before the press, former Air Force captain Stephen Dunhill and Malibu, CA lifeguard Blake Brawner were introduced by officials who said the two tanned studs had completed an Astronaut Corps training program that pushed them to their mental, physical, and carnal limits. NASA confirmed that the two mouthwatering male specimens possessed both the courage and the raw, insatiable lust needed to complete the landmark mission.

For centuries, humanity has gazed up at the bright red planet in the night sky and dreamed of putting a man on a man on Mars, said NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot Jr., explaining that the agency was confident the two hard-bodied astronauts could endure the harsh conditions and constant thrusting the six-year roundtrip mission will require. As they explore the planet and each others chiseled bodies during this mission, these two slabs of prime beefcake will advance our understanding of the universe and bring us one step closer to the day when humans build a civilization on another planet and then fuck each other hard.

These brave, horny muscleboys will be true pioneers, Lightfoot added.

Having received more than 800 rsums and modeling portfolios, officials said they invited the 25 hunkiest applicants to the Johnson Space Center for medical exams to confirm they met stringent requirements for height, weight, visual acuity, testosterone levels, and pectoral circumference. Those candidates certified as sufficiently Adonis-like and hungry for cock then reportedly participated in a flight simulation inside a replica of NASAs new Penetrator spacecraft, which has been built for the man-on-man missions planned launch in 2020.

According to sources, the prospective astronauts underwent grueling tests in which they were observed as they piloted the model spacecraft, maneuvered through the cramped cabin to check instrument panels while executing seamless reach-arounds, responded to simulated emergency scenarios, and negotiated the delicate entry into Mars atmosphere while having their testicles played with.

NASA representatives noted that candidates were also strapped to a gyroscope in the 69 position to evaluate their ability to simultaneously perform and receive oral sex while spinning rapidly along multiple axes.

Throughout the journey, from launch to landing, well be following the Penetrators progress along its charted course and monitoring the crews vital signs, including their libido level and recovery time between spectacular climaxes, said Lightfoot, adding that Mission Control will know immediately if, for example, the mens advanced blowjob techniques do not function as anticipated in a zero-gravity environment. Once on Mars, the astronauts will set up their habitation module and fix any mechanical issues with its oxygen generator, fuck swing, or water purifier.

The acting head of NASA went on to detail other preparations for the mission, such as making sure the ships payload contained adequate supplies of the calorie-rich foods formulated to quickly re-energize the men after each round of vigorous mind-blowing sex. On the planets surface, the astronauts will reportedly conduct scientific tests, collect soil samples, and, once they are sealed safely back inside the airlock, rip each others spacesuits off so they can immediately resume sucking and fucking.

Lightfoot praised the two luscious pieces of top-shelf manflesh who stood beside him at the press conference, observing that Dunhill, a decorated pilot, skilled engineer, and fellatio expert with steely blue eyes and six-pack abs, and Brawner, a part-time personal trainer with a chiseled jawline and a 10-inch penis, passed the training program with flying colors.

Soon mankind will embark upon a new frontier, one that many of us have waited for our whole lives, Lightfoot said. For those of you who want to follow the progress of our astronauts during their historic journey, please note that a continuous POV live feed will be available on NASAs website.

Here is the original post:

NASA Announces Selection Of Two Hot, Ripped Astronauts For Man-On-Man Mission To Mars - The Onion (satire)

An aluminum cargo container, built more than 15 years ago to move large equipment to space, will be transformedinto a prototype of a space habitat where astronauts would live during long missions.

The project is a step toward NASA's next big human spaceflight project called theDeep Space Gateway, a spaceport in the moon's orbit where astronauts would live for up to a year. NASA's goal is to have it up and running by themid-2020s, and from there, the space agency hopes to gain some experience and develop capabilities needed to push farther into the solar system, specifically to Mars.

Colorado-based Lockheed Martin, a NASA contractor, announced last week that it will refurbish the cargo space container into a habitat prototype. It won't look like much on the outside just a massive cylindrical metal container, about 21 feet long and 15 feet in diameter. The interior will be turned into aliving quarter, with robotics work stations for astronauts, a place to exercise and storage spaces for food, water, toiletries all the things you need to live and be happy in space, said Bill Pratt, of Lockheed Martin.

[Mars Society founder blasts NASA for worst plan yet]

It is easy to take things for granted when you are living at home Something as simple as calling your family is completely different when you are outside of low Earth orbit, Pratt said in a news release. While building this habitat, we have to operate in a different mindset that's more akin to long trips to Mars to ensure we keep them safe, healthy and productive.

Named Donatello, the cargo container was one of three built by the Italian Space Agencyin the 1990s toserve as moving vans carrying equipment, experiments and supplies to and from the International Space Station, a large spacecraft orbiting the Earth and where astronauts have lived since 2000.

Donatello was delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Centerfrom Italy in 2001. While the two other cargo containers, called Leonardo and Raffaello, flew on several shuttle missions to the International Space Station, Donatello was never used.

Lockheed Martin will refurbish Donatello at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The work would take about 18 months.

Although Donatello was originally built to be flown to space, the refurbished hardware won't make it there, Pratt said. Lockheed will turn over its prototype to NASA, which will then start looking at building the actual habitat, Pratt said.

[Stephen Hawking, Kris Jenner and other famous people with plans to send humans to Mars]

It's a steppingstone to the actual flight vehicle and pretty representative of the actual thing that flies, Pratt said.

The Deep Space Gateway habitat will be docked to a spacecraft called Orion, the exploration vehicle that will carry astronauts to space.

Pratt said it's still too early to say how much the prototype would cost.

Lockheed Martin is one of six U.S. companiesNASA contracted to buildhabitat prototypes for the spaceflight project. The Deep Space Gateway, which focuses onsending astronauts on extended missions in the moon's orbit, is a far more modest goal than reachingMars. But, as The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach wrote, it's more technologically doable in the near term under plausible budgets.

NASA said it hopes to send humans to Marsby the 2030s.

In March, President Trump signed a bill authorizing $19.5 billion to fund NASA programs, including Mars exploration.

READ MORE:

Trump signs NASA bill aimed at sending people to Mars

NASA officials discuss Trumps push for first-term moon mission

Stephen Hawking calls for a return to the moon as Earths clock runs out

Originally posted here:

NASA is building a prototype for a habitat in deep space by recycling an old cargo container - Washington Post