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NASA funds attempt at 3D food printer for pizza

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NASA throws some money at an engineer who is developing a 3D food printer. First challenge? Making a pizza.

This schematic shows how the 3D food printer would function.

"Star Trek" food replicators will always be the holy grail of space-snack technology, but we could be edging a step closer to the dream thanks to the work of mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor with Systems and Materials Research in Austin, Texas.

Systems and Materials Research recently received a $125,000 grant from NASA to make a pizza. OK, it's a little more complicated than that. Contractor already created a proof-of-concept printer that can print chocolate onto a cookie. His next goal is to print out dough and cook it while printing out sauce and toppings.

Contractor isn't just planning to use cartridges full of red sauce, but rather the building blocks of food products. Cartridges full of powders and oils could be combined to make different foods. These cartridges would have extremely long shelf lives, making them appropriate for feeding astronauts during long-distance space travel.

"The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years," Contractor told news site Quartz in an article posted Tuesday.

This doesn't sound like a sublime foodie experience, but it could be a practical way to keep people fed all the way to Mars. It could also offer a lot more variety than the usual freeze-dried fare. Five months into your trip to Mars, I bet a hot 3D-printed pizza with a mystery protein layer would taste pretty dang good.

Contractor is starting work on building the prototype pizza printer. In case you're hungry right now, you can check out his chocolate printer below.

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NASA funds attempt at 3D food printer for pizza

NASA releases satellite images of storm that spawned Oklahoma tornado

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NASA's Aqua satellite acquired this image of the storm at 2:40 p.m. local time. The red line depicts the tornado's track. Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard.

GREENBELT, Md., May 21 (UPI) -- NASA released a satellite photo that shows the system that generated severe weather and a tornado Monday afternoon that devastated Moore, Okla.

Satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration photographed the storm system over the south-central United States, the space agency said Tuesday.

The tornado that struck Moore, spawned by the supercell thunderstorms in the satellite images, was an F-4 tornado on the enhanced Fujita scale, the National Weather Service determined, with winds between 166 and 200 mph.

Satellites provided imagery and data to forecasters before, during and after the tornado, NASA said, allowing them to issue a first warning almost an hour before the tornado touched down in Moore, where it caused dozens of deaths and widespread destruction.

This tornado was about twice as wide as the one that struck Moore on May 3, 1999.

Moore is 10 miles south of Oklahoma City.

NOAA's GOES-13 satellite provided forecasters with images of the storm system every 15 minutes, NASA said.

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NASA releases satellite images of storm that spawned Oklahoma tornado

NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Into 2nd Mars Rock

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has broken out its trusty drill again, pulling samples from deep within a Red Planet rock for the second time ever.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover bored 2.6 inches (6.6 centimeters) into a rock dubbed "Cumberland" on Sunday (May 19), NASA officials said. The resulting powdered sample will be delivered to the robot's onboard science instruments in the coming days.

Curiosity first used its drill to collect samples back in February, boring into a nearby rock called "John Klein." That operation revealed that ancient Mars was likely capable of supporting microbial life a groundbreaking discovery that the mission team wants to confirm.

"The science team expects to use analysis of material from Cumberland to check findings from John Klein," NASA officials wrote in a mission update Monday (May 20).

Curiosity touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater last August, kicking off a two-year surface mission to investigate the Red Planet's past and present habitability. It has spent the time since then close to its landing site, putting just 2,300 feet (700 meters) on its odometer thus far.

But the six-wheeled robot will soon start making some serious tracks. Curiosity's ultimate destination is the base of Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky from Gale Crater's center.

Mount Sharp's foothills show signs of past exposure to liquid water. Further, mission scientists want Curiosity to read Mars' changing environmental history like a book as it climbs through the many layers comprising the mountain's lower reaches.

Curiosity will likely start heading to Mount Sharp's base after it finishes analyzing the Cumberland samples and wraps up a few other high-priority science operations in the area, NASA officials said. The 5-mile (8 km) journey is expected the take months, as Curiosity's top speed across hard, flat ground is about 0.09 mph (0.14 km/h).

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSPACE.com.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Drills Into 2nd Mars Rock

NASA to Lease Historic Launch Pad for Commercial Rocket Missions

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The historic NASA launch pad from where astronauts blasted off for the moon and space shuttles departed for Earth orbit is now in need of a new rocket to launch.

This week, NASA is expected to begin soliciting proposals for the commercial use of Launch Pad 39A at the space agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Use of the pad by private industry is hoped to maintain the historic launch complex and encourage commercial space activities along Florida's Space Coast.

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative, or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana said in a statement, referring to NASA's next-generation heavy-lift booster and its crewed spacecraft. [Photos: NASA's Giant Rocket for Deep Space Flights]

"Launch Complex 39A is not required to support our [planned] asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars," Cabana added. "It's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the pad and related facilities."

Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, NASA has turned to commercial space companies to provide launch services. Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, were awarded contracts to bring cargo to the International Space Station, while SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. are developing crewed spacecraft in a bid to launch NASA astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.

SpaceX has said in the past that it has considered using NASA's launch facilities in place of, or in addition to, its current pad leased from the United States Air Force at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Other companies, such as Alliant Techsystems (ATK), might benefit from the use of the legacy hardware given that its Liberty rocket shares a heritage with the space shuttle's boosters.

Launch Pad 39A was one of two large launch complexes built in the 1960s to support the Apollo program's Saturn V rocket launches to the moon and Saturn IB flights to the Skylab space station. Both pads were later modified for the space shuttle launches to deploy and service satellites and build the International Space Station.

Pad 39A's twin, Pad 39B, was stripped of its iconic launch support towers in 2011 to enable its use for possible future commercial and government launch vehicles. Launch Pad 39A, which supported 92 launches since November 1967 12 Saturn V rockets and 80 shuttles was initially set to support the new Space Launch System.

Budget constraints however, caused NASA to consolidate its future launch pad needs at Pad 39B, leaving Pad 39A without a purpose. And without the funding to modify or maintain it, Cabana said earlier this year that the agency has no choice but to abandon Pad 39A in place unless a commercial user could be identified.

According to the space agency's own assessments, Pad 39A could still serve as a platform for a private company's launch activities. However, this would require the company to take over financial and technical responsibility of the complex's operations and management.

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NASA to Lease Historic Launch Pad for Commercial Rocket Missions

NASA Funds 3D Pizza Printer

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NASA has doled out a research grant to develop a prototype 3D printer for food, so astronauts may one day enjoy 3D-printed pizza on Mars.

Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC), based in Austin, Texas, received a $125,000 grant from the space agency to build a prototype of his food synthesizer, as was first reported by Quartz.

NASA hopes the technology may one day be used to feed astronauts on longer space missions, such as the roughly 520 days required for a manned flight to Mars. Manned missions to destinations deeper in the solar system would require food that can last an even longer amount of time.

"Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life," Contractor told Quartz. "The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years."

Dividing the various components of food in powder cartridges would theoretically enable users to mix them together, like the ingredients in normal recipes, to create a diverse array of nutritious meals.

To prove his idea works, Contractor printed chocolate. Now, he's aiming to build a more advanced prototype to print a pizza, according to Quartz.

The system will start by "printing" a sheet of dough, followed by a layer of tomato "sauce," which will consist of the powder mixed with water and oil. Instead of traditional toppings, the 3D-printed pizza will be finished off with a layer of protein, which can be derived from animals, milk or plants, Contractor told Quartz.

While NASA sees applications for 3D printers on future manned space missions, Contractor said his food synthesizer could also be an effective way of addressing the problem of food shortages from rapid population growth.

"I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can't supply 12 billion people sufficiently," Contractor told Quartz. "So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food."

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

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NASA Funds 3D Pizza Printer

NASA to lease historic Launch Pad 39A for private missions

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An artist's concept showing a possible layout of a commercial rocket and spacecraft positioned at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

By Robert Z. Pearlman Space.com

The historic NASA launch pad from where astronauts blasted off for the moon and space shuttles departed for Earth orbit is now in need of a new rocket to launch.

This week, NASA is expected to begin soliciting proposals for the commercial use of Launch Pad 39A at the space agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Use of the pad by private industry is hoped to maintain the historic launch complex and encourage commercial space activities along Florida's Space Coast.

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana said in a statement, referring to NASA's next-generation heavy-lift booster and its crewed spacecraft. [Photos: NASA's Giant Rocket for Deep Space Flights]

"Launch Complex 39A is not required to support our (planned) asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars," Cabana added. "It's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the pad and related facilities."

Since the end of the space shuttleprogram in 2011, NASA has turned to commercial space companies to provide launch services. Two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, were awarded contracts to bring cargo to the International Space Station, while SpaceX, the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. are developing crewed spacecraft in a bid to launch NASA astronauts to the orbiting laboratory.

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An aerial view of the existing Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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NASA to lease historic Launch Pad 39A for private missions

NASA to open launch pad for commercial use

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WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) -- Commercial space activities may soon utilize a NASA launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was designed for the Apollo space program.

The agency said it plans to announce proposals for commercial use of Launch Pad 39A, which when implemented would "encourage commercial space activities along Florida's Space Coast and fully use the historic launch complex."

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative, or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," said Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana.

"Launch Complex 39A is not required to support our asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars. But it's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the pad and related facilities."

Launch Pad 39A was designed to support NASA's Apollo Program and was modified to launch space shuttles. Launch Pad 39B, located nearby, is being modernized to support government and commercial launches, including NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

NASA said assessments indicate Launch Pad 39A could serve as a platform for a commercial space company's launch activities if the company assumes financial and technical responsibility of the complex's operations and management.

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NASA to open launch pad for commercial use

NASA Seeks High-Performance Spaceflight Computing Capabilities

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NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., are requesting research and development proposals to define the type of spacecraft computing needed for future missions.

Through a broad agency announcement, the Air Force Next Generation Space Processor Analysis Program is seeking two to four companies to perform a yearlong evaluation of advanced, space-based applications that would use spaceflight processors for the 2020-2030 time frame.

NASA's decision to partner with the Air Force and issue a joint solicitation was influenced by a four-month formulation study funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate's Game Changing Development Program.

During that investigation, engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., evaluated 19 real-life mission scenarios involving the use of flight processors.

"We surveyed NASA's needs and it became more than obvious that we could take advantage of an advanced processor," said Richard Doyle, the program manager for JPL's Information and Data Science Program and study leader.

By any standard, NASA's state-of-the-art is significantly less capable than what is available in most consumer products, said Wes Powell, a NASA Goddard engineer who participated in the study.

"We have special requirements," Doyle said. "Our flight needs are more extreme and our processors must be able to perform robustly in a radiation environment, using low power." As a result, both military and civilian mission planners must use specialized, vastly more expensive processors that have been hardened against radiation-induced upsets and generally have a higher degree of fault tolerance.

Limitations of the Current State-of-the-Art The current state-of-the-art - the RAD750 - is a single-board computer manufactured by BAE Systems Electronic Solutions. Specifically designed to operate in high-radiation environments like those encountered in space, BAE released the technology in 2001 as the successor to the RAD6000.

As of 2010, the RAD750 had become de rigueur for a broad range of space missions, including the Curiosity rover, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, among others.

Though it's hardened against radiation-induced upsets and uses only five watts of power - another important performance requirement in energy-constrained spaceflight missions - the RAD750 computes only 200 million operations per second.

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Nasa satellite captures stunning 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo of Earth in just 15 minutes

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Panoramic photo is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide Nasa's Landsat Data Continuity Mission captured the swath of land 438 miles above the Earth Photo stretches from northern Russia to South Africa 56 still images form the panoramic mosaic

By Victoria Woollaston

PUBLISHED: 04:25 EST, 20 May 2013 | UPDATED: 05:45 EST, 20 May 2013

Nasa has captured the world's largest panoramic photo at 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide using a satellite orbiting 438 miles above the Earth.

The swath is made up of 56 still images taken during the satellite's final orbit and stretches from northern Russia down to South Africa.

Nasa's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) scanned the surface of the Earth during orbit in April and took just 15 minutes to take the shots.

Zoom in in the full image below (may not work on all devices)

Image of the globe showing the swath of land captured by Nasa's Land Data Continuity Mission as it orbited the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. The seamless swath is made up of 56 images travelling from northern Russia, over the Red Sea and down into South Africa. The camera took just 15 minutes to shoot the panoramic image, which is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide

The LDCM travels at 438 miles (705 kilometres) above the Earth.

It orbits at speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour.

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Nasa satellite captures stunning 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo of Earth in just 15 minutes

Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record for off-world driving

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Mars rover Opportunity breaks 40-year-old NASA record, and is about to set the international record for off-world roving.

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Curiosity may be NASA's most popular roving robot, but last week the Mars rover Opportunity brought its total trip odometer up to 22.22 miles -- the longest distance ever traveled by a NASA vehicle on the surface of another planet.

Opportunity traversed 263 feet of Martian landscape near Endeavour Crater to break the record of 22.21 miles set during the Apollo 17 mission. In 1972, Eugene Cernan and Harrision Schmitt drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle to the NASA record.

In the coming weeks, nine-year-old Opportunity will surpass the international record for driving distance on another world held by the Soviet Unions Lunokhod 2 robotic rover, which covered 23 miles of lunar surface in 1973. The Mars robot set off on a journey from "Cape York" where it has been working since 2011 toward a target known as Solander Point about 1.4 miles away.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project in addition to the Mars Science Laboratory Project and its rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012.

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Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record for off-world driving

Littelfuse Hosts Speed2Design TechTalks at NASA

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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Littelfuse, Inc., the global leader in circuit protection, has created a NASA Exploration & Discovery Experience for the engineering community as part of its 2013 Speed2Design promotion. Winning design engineers will get an opportunity to go behind the scenes to spend time with NASA engineers at two premiere NASA facilities. Littelfuse will host Speed2Design TechTalk events at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., on August 15 and Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on October 24. Over the next few months, Littelfuse will randomly select 10 winners from those who enter the promotion to participate in each Speed2Design event. You can learn more and enter at the Littelfuse Speed2Design website.

Speed2Design Exploration & Discovery events were created by Littelfuse to allow the design community an exclusive opportunity to meet and talk with engineers working on some of the most exciting and advanced technology being developed today. The highlights of these events are the Speed2Design TechTalks, which offer a unique opportunity for peer-to-peer discussion with NASA engineers involved in the NASA Technology Transfer Program. These engineers are currently working on technological breakthroughs in small spacecraft, intelligent robotics, 3D printing, bioengineering and the NASA Space Portal. Hospitality events are also included the night before and day of the event.

There's no cost to the winners of the drawings to participate in the Exploration & Discovery events; as the host, Littelfuse will provide a travel voucher, lodging and event expenses.

We created the 2013 Speed2Design Exploration & Discovery experience to bring engineers face-to-face with some of the most impressive technology on the planet, Cathy Whittaker, Director, Global Marketing Communications. The design engineers we work with appreciate the technology challenges, demands and reliability required of the electronics that go into modern spacecraft and support systems. This years Speed2Design events offer design engineers an opportunity to get an up close and personal look at the worlds most advanced technologies and to talk to space exploration experts who create these innovations.

The Littelfuse inaugural Speed2Design promotion in 2012 took winners behind the scenes for an IndyCar weekend race experience, complete with face-to-face TechTalks with IndyCar engineers responsible for building and maintaining racings premiere performance machines. Littelfuse was a proud sponsor of Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan. This sponsorship provided an excellent opportunity to draw attention to the role of circuit protection technology in motorsports. The Speed2Design 2012 Highlights Video provides a fast-paced recap of the exciting racing season.

About NASA Technology Exchange

The NASA Ames Technology Partnerships Division facilitates transfer of NASA Ames Research Center technologies and capabilities into NASA's Mission Directorates, Programs, and Projects through investments and partnerships with industry, academia, government agencies, and national laboratories. These activities increase NASA's connection to emerging technologies in external communities and make NASA's technology portfolio available to industry and academia to support NASA's strategic goals. Technology transfer through dual-use partnerships and licensing also creates many important socio-economic benefits within the broader community.

The Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office (TTO) at NASAs Johnson Space Center (JSC) facilitates the transfer and commercialization of NASA-sponsored research and technology as well as the use of JSCs unique research and development capabilities and facilities. The office works with entrepreneurs, companies, and investors, helping them license NASA-developed technologies so they can bring them to the marketplace. The office also works to develop partnerships with companies, universities, other federal agencies, and national labs that will leverage the partners expertise and facilities as well as JSCs. Partnerships enable JSC to leverage technology being developed externally and infuse it into NASA programs.

About Speed2Design

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Littelfuse Hosts Speed2Design TechTalks at NASA


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