NASA Successfully Launches Three Smartphone Satellites
Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp. #39;s Antares rocket from NASA #39;s ...
By: nasaames
See the original post here:
NASA Successfully Launches Three Smartphone Satellites - Video
US Plutonium production resumes for NASA missions
Sign up for a free trial of News Direct #39;s animated news graphics at http://newsdirect.nma.com.tw/Reuters.aspx For story suggestions please contact tips@nma.c...
By: NMANewsDirect
See the original post here:
NASA tests alternative to shuttles
The Orbital Sciences Corporation has become a contender in the commercial space arena. On Sunday, the private company launched a rocket from the Eastern Shor...
By: RTAmerica
See more here:
Nasa ljubav :* ^_^
24.04.2012 - 24.04.2013.
By: Snezana Vaskovic
Continue reading here:
Nasa Mars Rover Draws Penis On Planet | HPL
Subscribe to HuffPost Live Today: http://bit.ly/13Rzzjw Watch More HPL Here: http://goo.gl/z3htz Nasa #39;s $800m Mars Exploration Rovers have accidentally drawn...
By: HuffPostLive
Read the rest here:
NASA's proposed mission to snag an asteroid and bring it into lunar orbit to be visited by astronauts is beginning to take shape even as arguments over its rationale continue. NASA is asking for $100 million for the mission for FY2014.
According to NasaSpaceFlight.com, the asteroid mission is divided into three parts. They are detection and characterization, rendezvous, capture, and redirection, and finally the expedition to the asteroid by NASA astronauts. The shape of the mission was set forth in a recent presentation to the human exploration and operations committee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) by William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
Detection and characterization
First NASA has to find an asteroid that meets all of its criteria, according to NASASpaceFlight.com. It has to be the right size (about seven meters in diameter according to the original Keck Institute study), the right mass, and the right spin characteristics. The asteroid also has to be already headed toward cislunar space to make it easier to redirect it into lunar orbit. The Keck Institute study suggests that the asteroid be a carbonaceous C-type asteroid containing a mix of volatiles, organic materials, rock, and metal.
Rendezvous, capture, and redirection
Next, a robotic spacecraft, using a 40-kilowatt solar electric propulsion engine, would be sent forth to capture the asteroid and redirect it into a retrograde orbit around the moon, according to NASASpaceFlight.com. The spacecraft would have an inflatable bag or sleeve that would capture the asteroid and a hydrazine system that would help to despin it. Using the continuous thrust possible for an SEP engine, the spacecraft would then deliver it to a lunar orbit that NASA estimates will be stable for a hundred years.
Human mission
Once the asteroid is safely in lunar orbit, a crew of NASA astronauts, flying in an Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle launched by the heavy lift Space Launch System, would visit the asteroid in a 20-day mission, NASASpaceFlight.com. The astronauts would use a boom of some sort to connect the Orion with the robotic spacecraft, which would remain attached to the asteroid, and use them to translate from the Orion to the asteroid with several space walks. The astronauts would explore the small asteroid and take samples that would be returned to Earth for study.
NASA: asteroid mission all that can be afforded
According to the Orlando Sentinel, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden ran into some skepticism during a House hearing on the space agency's exploration plans. Why not, the question was posed, go to the moon instead? Bolden replied that considering the meager budgets NASA has been getting, the asteroid mission is all that can be afforded.
Read the rest here:
NASA's Asteroid Mission Takes Shape as Congress Remains Skeptical
April 26, 2013
Image Credit: NASA / MSFC / Pay Downward
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online
NASAs annual Great Moonbuggy Race kicked off today in Huntsville, Alabama, marking 20 years since the competition began.
The annual Great Moonbuggy Race involves high school- and college-aged students who build lightweight, human-powered moonbuggies that address many of the same design challenges NASA and industry engineers overcame during the Apollo missions. In the late 1960s, NASA engineers designed the Apollo-era Lunar Roving Vehicles to allow astronauts to range across the harsh lunar surface.
The 20-year-old competition is organized by the Academic Affairs Office at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and is sponsored by the Human Exploration & Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. During the race, students must overcome a moonbuggy course, comprised of a winding half-mile of gravel embankments, sand pits and obstacles that mimic the harsh surface of the moon.
Essentially, the moonbuggies built by the students look like a very complicated four-wheeled bicycle. However, buggies need a well thought out suspension system in order to get through the course efficiently.
Some buggies show up with no suspension at all, says race authority Dennis Gallagher. Im not sure why theyd make that particular choice. I guess theyre interested in reliving the bone-crushing antique wagon or automobile experience circa 1905?
NASA says only the strongest buggies survive its simulated lunar course. Over the years, it has seen teams walk away dragging pieces of their buggies with them, including broken chains, snapped frames and buckled wheels.
This competition provides a tremendous amount of real-world experience you just cant replicate in a classroom, said NASA engineer Mike Selby, who was a student racer for the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 1995 and 1996. Whether students serve as buggy drivers, wrench jockeys, welders, team secretaries or fundraisers, its an experience none will ever forget and one that demonstrates career paths and aptitudes that can change their lives forever.
More:
NASA, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. State Department and Nike have issued a challenge to identify 10 game-changing innovations that could enable fabric systems to enhance global economic growth, drives human prosperity and replenishes the planet's resources.
The challenge is open through July 15 and seeks creative innovations in the materials from which fabrics are made, with a focus on positive social and environmental impact in space and on Earth. Ten innovators will be selected to present their fabrics solutions at the LAUNCH: System Challenge 2013 forum, which NASA will host Sept. 26-28 at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Fabrics, and the materials from which they are made, are important for designing new spacecraft and spacesuits that will protect astronauts as they venture to destinations farther than they have been before. Innovations presented at the LAUNCH: System Challenge 2013 forum may lead to new, stronger, lighter and more affordable fabrics that will benefit NASA as it sends humans deeper into our solar system.
Spacecraft traveling to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, such as an asteroid or Mars, will need stronger materials to protect astronauts from galactic radiation. Likewise, when astronauts are outside their spacecraft exploring an asteroid or the Martian surface, they will need new, stronger, more durable and more flexible spacesuits.
NASA and the LAUNCH Council, which is made up of thought leaders representing a diverse and collaborative body of entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, government, media and business, will participate in the forum and help guide these innovations forward. The selected LAUNCH innovators will receive networking and mentoring opportunities from influential business and government leaders, as well as portfolio presentations.
Previous LAUNCH forums have focused on water, health, energy and waste management. These forums resulted in innovations, including technology that enables irrigation using brackish, saline and polluted water; a biodegradable needle that can deliver vaccines or medicine under the skin using a pressure device; a tiny holographic microscope attached to a cell phone that can detect parasites and bacteria in blood and water in remote locations; a handheld lab-in-a-box that diagnoses a variety of diseases in a matter of minutes; a modular, flexible smart-grid distribution technology to provide access to power for those in need; and a simple, affordable fuel cell that converts biomass directly to electricity.
NASA invests in technologies to create a better future, and those investments pay off here on Earth, creating new jobs and improving lives. LAUNCH was created to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to global sustainability challenges. LAUNCH searches for visionaries whose ideas, technologies or programs show great promise for making tangible impacts on society in the developed and developing worlds.
For more information about LAUNCH: System Challenge 2013 and how to enter the challenge, visit: http://www.launch.org/challenges/systems-2013
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov
Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
Read the original post:
NASA, Partners Solicit Creative Materials Manufacturing Solutions
ESA and NASA / SOHO
This image of a coronal mass ejection (CME) was captured on April 20 as the CME was headed in the direction of Mercury. The large bright spot on the left is Venus.
By Denise Chow Space.com
Two NASA spacecraft are safe and sound after the sun unleashed three intense back-to-back solar eruptions in their direction, scientists say.
NASA's Messenger spacecraft in orbit around Mercury and the Stereo-A, which studies the sun from Earth orbit, suffered no damage from the passing solar storms.
On April 20, the sun fired off a solar eruptionthat sent huge wave of plasma and charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), toward Mercury. The next day, the sun unleashed two more CMEs in the same direction, and managers from both the Messenger and Stereo missions were alerted of the potential hazards should the CMEs hit or pass closely to the probes.
But, it appears both spacecraft made it through unscathed.
"The CME did pass by Stereo-A we can see it in the data," said C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Other than that, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary."
In severe cases, CMEs can scramble a spacecraft's onboard electronics, but these particular eruptions were not very strong, Young explained. Still, spacecraft manufacturers are mindful of the amount of radiation their hardware will likely be exposed to in space.
"These spacecraft, while they certainly can be affected by space weather, they're generally made to withstand reasonable amounts of radiation," Young told Space.com.
See the rest here:
Supporters of planetary science are rallying against NASA's proposed 2014 budget, which they say unfairly guts funding for solar system research and exploration.
The Obama administration unveiled the budget plan April 10, requesting $17.7 billion for NASA $50 million less than the agency got in 2012. The budget must be approved by Congress before it becomes official. Under the budget proposal, planetary science would receive $1.217 billion in 2014. Discounting the $50 million earmarked for producing plutonium-238, which fuels deep space vehicles (this used to be paid for by the Department of Energy), and $20 million for asteroid detection in service of a future manned asteroid mission, this represents a $268 million cut from planetary science funding levels approved by Congress for 2013, advocates said.
"The Planetary Society has deep concerns about the continued effort to defund planetary science in NASA's 2014 budget proposal," wrote officials from the society, which was founded by astronomer Carl Sagan to promote solar-system exploration, in testimony submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology April 24. "Without immediate investment in technology and mission development not possible under the FY14 proposal the United States will go 'radio dark' in almost all regions of the solar system by the end of the decade." [NASA's 2014 Space Goals Explained in Pictures]
The proposed budget would include $105 million in funds to support an asteroid-capture mission and other asteroid studies, but eliminate a planned robotic mission to Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa, which harbors an ocean buried beneath its icy surface that may support microbial life. And current missions, such as NASA's Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn and the Messenger orbiter around Mercury, may come to premature ends.
Bill Nye, chief executive officer of the Planetary Society, called the budget "shortsighted and disastrous" in a letter urging supporters to write their Congressional representatives in support of planetary science. The organization aims to send 25,000 messages to Capitol Hill by April 28.
A group of lawmakers also joined in the campaign, penning a letter to NASA administrator Charles Bolden on April 19 asking that he and the Obama administration rethink their 2013 NASA budget, which is still unfinalized.
"We write to express opposition to any Fiscal Year 2013 NASA Operating Plan that disproportionately applies sequester and across-the-board cuts to the science budget," wrote Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in a letter signed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representative John Culberson (R-TX). "While we fully understand that the funding levels enumerated in the bill and report are subject to change to reflect the across the board and sequester cuts, we expect that the balance among programs will remain consistent with the structure directed by Congress."
Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitterand Google+. Follow us@Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article onSPACE.com.
Continued here:
Planetary Scientists Protest 'Disastrous' NASA Budget Cuts Proposed for 2014
Two NASA spacecraft are safe and sound, after the sun unleashed three intense back-to-back solar eruptions in their direction, scientists say.
NASA's Messenger spacecraft in orbit around Mercury and the Stereo-A, which studies the sun from Earth orbit, suffered no damage from the passing solar storms.
On April 20, the sun fired off a solar eruption that sent huge wave of plasma and charged particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), toward Mercury. The next day, the sun unleashed two more CMEs in the same direction, and managers from both the Messenger and Stereo missions were alerted of the potential hazards should the CMEs hit or pass closely to the probes.
But, it appears both spacecraft made it through unscathed.
"The CME did pass by Stereo-A we can see it in the data," said C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Other than that, we didn't see anything out of the ordinary."
In severe cases, CMEs can scramble a spacecraft's onboard electronics, but these particular eruptions were not very strong, Young explained. Still, spacecraft manufacturers are mindful of the amount of radiation their hardware will likely be exposed to in space.
"These spacecraft, while they certainly can be affected by spaceweather, they're generally made to withstand reasonable amounts of radiation," Young told SPACE.com.
Stereo-A is one of a pair of twin space probes tasked with monitoring solar weather events. The Stereo spacecraft (short for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) were both launched in 2006.
NASA'sMessenger spacecrafthas been orbiting Mercury since March 2011. The mission completed its first full map of Mercury's surface last month.
The sun's activity ebbs and flows on an 11-year cycle, and solar weather events are expected to increase this year as the current cycle ramps up toward the solar maximum. The current solar weather cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.
View post:
Gwiyomi - Nasa Labas Sila Mikay Parody
Parody of the Video "Gwiyomi - Nahuli Ni Tatay Version" Hahaha! Starring: Henry Pantilanan.
By: Park Jin Chun
Originally posted here:
NASA discovers Earth like planets
NASA #39;s planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. They are just the right size and in...
By: RTAmerica
Link:
Gwiyomi, NASA LABAS SI MIKAY (parody)
HAHAHAhaha,, hello mga gayomis natawa ba kayo sa Vid na toh? PWES.... ilike nyo ng ilike at ishare!! ng makapasaya naman ng mga buhay buhay dyan... ADD me @ ...
By: Arron Cadawas
Here is the original post:
NASA launches first Antares Rocket
For the first time NASA test-launched the Antares Rocket that is supposed to replace the shuttle program that was retired after 30 years in service. For seve...
By: RTAmerica
Read more here:
Spectacular NASA Time-Lapse Video of the Sun
NASA released a time-lapse video of the sun showing three years #39; solar activity in two minutes. The images are the latest from a project started in 2010 by t...
By: WSJDigitalNetwork
Excerpt from:
Massive Structure Discovered On Sun In NASA/SOHO Photo, April 2013, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 24, 2013 at 13:06 Location of sighting: Earths Sun NASA camera: EIT 284 While looking over NASA/SOHO photos within the official NASA ...
By: TaiwanSCW
Go here to read the rest:
Massive Structure Discovered On Sun In NASA/SOHO Photo, April 2013, UFO Sighting News. - Video
NASA chief Charles Bolden found himself defending the U.S. space agency's practice of investing in commercial companies to ferry cargo - and one day crew - to the International Space Station. The grilling came less than a week after Orbital Science's successful rocket test flight and after several successful SpaceX cargo flights to the International Space Station.
Senators on the appropriations subcommittee for Commerce, Justice and Science questioned NASA's priorities as they scrutinized the president's request for $17.7 billion to fund the U.S. space agency in fiscal year 2014. Specifically, they questioned NASA's ability to see through its plans to develop a heavy-lift rocket, known as the Space Launch System or SLS, while balancing investments in commercial enterprises to transport cargo and crew to the space station.
Priorities
The subcommittee's two top lawmakers, chairwoman Barbara Mikulski of Maryland and vice-chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama, have NASA facilities in their states. Senator Shelby said he was concerned that the proposed budget is an example of "chasing the next great idea while sacrificing current investments."
"This budget focuses, I believe, too heavily on maintaining the fiction of privately funded commercial launch vehicles, which diverts, I think, critical resources from NASA's goal of developing human spaceflight capabilities with the SLS," said Shelby. NASA Administrator Bolden said NASA's priorities remain the world's most powerful rocket - the SLS, as well as the James Webb Space Telescope -- the Hubble's successor -- and the International Space Station, shored up by commercial crew and cargo transportation. He called 2013 "a year of decision."
"If we do not get $822 million in the 2014 budget as requested by the president, it will be my unfortunate duty to advise the Congress and the president that we probably will not make 2017 for the availability of an American capability to get our astronauts to space," said Bolden. "And I will have to tell you that I'm going to have to come back and ask for authorization to once again pay the Russians to take our crews to space."
Reliance on Russia
The NASA administrator noted that a funding request in 2011 was not met, so the United States was unable to launch astronauts from its soil in 2015, as had been hoped. The U.S. has not had a vehicle to take astronauts to the space station since it retired the shuttle fleet two years ago. NASA is relying on commercial firms to handle transport to the space station so it can focus its attention on developing the next-generation of rockets and capsules that can go beyond low-Earth orbit -- to an asteroid or Mars. Russian transport to the space station is costly. The U.S. signed a contract in 2011 to pay $753 million to Russia in exchange for transport and related services for 12 astronauts from 2014 through mid-2016.
Sequestration
NASA's Bolden, himself a former astronaut, also emphasized the negative effects of looming, mandatory across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration. He said, if implemented, the cuts will potentially impact the James Webb Space Telescope, certainly impact the SLS heavy lift rocket and Orion capsule and, in his words, "devastate commercial crew and cargo."
Read this article:
Commercial jets could fly safely with a blend of jet fuel that includes a plant oil, NASA researchers said Thursday.NASA is one of several government agencies examining the use of renewable biofuels to reduce dependency on foreign oil while reducing carbon emissions.
NASA researchers said Thursday that test flights conducted in California have shown a commercial jet could fly safely with a blend of jet fuel that includes a plantoil.
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Scientists at NASA's Langley Research center in Hampton said there was no noticeable difference in the engine performance of a DC-8 aircraft flying as high as 39,000 feet on the biofuel mix made from the camelina plantoil. The researchers also said that under certain conditions the biofuel mix produced 30 percent fewer emissions than traditional aviation fuel.
"In terms of these fuels being acceptable for use in commercial aircraft, they're quite acceptable, but we're still digging into the data," said Bruce Anderson, a senior research scientist at Langley who worked on the project.
NASA is one of several government agencies examining the use of renewable biofuels to reduce dependency on foreignoilwhile reducing carbon emissions. Military officials are also pursuing the use of biofuels, with the Navy hoping to deploy a 'Great Green Fleet' of ships and aircraft run entirely on alternative fuels in 2016.
Camelina, an oilseed crop that is native to northeastern Europe, can be cultivated in the U.S. and is considered well-suited to arid Northern Plains states because it needs little water and can handle low temperatures.
The research was conducted as a collaboration between Langley, Dryden and NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The biofuel mix tested by the experts allows a plan to be fueled just like any other aircraft, researchers said.
But Anderson noted one catch: camelinaoilis currently more expensive at about $18 a gallon, compared to about $4 a gallon for traditional jet fuel.
Read the original post: