Jan. 27, 2013 NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, also known as the Space Network, will get an upgrade this month when the agency launches the first of a new generation of communications satellites to connect man of NASA's spacecraft to their control centers and mission data centers.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 is due to loft the TDRS-K spacecraft Jan. 29 on a course to geosynchronous orbit where the spacecraft will have a wide view of Earth. From that position, the spacecraft will provide communications with NASA's fleet of Earth-orbiting science spacecraft, including the International Space Station and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The advanced spacecraft, known as TDRS, is needed to ensure the communications network is able to provide critical services to user spacecraft in the next decade.

"We have some aging satellites, so we need new spacecraft to go in there and help carry more of the data," said Diana Calero, mission manager for NASA's Launch Services Program, or LSP, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The processing for this mission included the standard in-depth reviews but also took into account extra engineering sessions to investigate whether the underperformance of an upper stage engine during an earlier, non-NASA launch would occur during the TDRS ascent, said Tim Dunn, NASA launch director. The Centaur upper stage used by the Atlas V uses an engine similar to the one that underperformed during a Delta IV launch last year.

"Our engineers and analysts from the Launch Services Program, working alongside the United Launch Alliance engineers, we've been methodically reviewing data and working very closely on flight clearance for the TDRS-K mission, so that's been our biggest challenge to date," Dunn said.

The TDRS spacecraft is large and looked impressive as it stood with its large steerable antennas folded over top of each other inside a processing hangar at Astrotech in Titusville, Fla. The spacecraft, built by The Boeing Company in El Segundo, Calif., arrived in Florida on Dec. 18 on an Air Force C-17 transport plane. Following testing, fueling and launch preparations, it was positioned inside a two-part payload fairing and taken to Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Onboard thrusters will provide the final propulsion to reach geosynchronous orbit following separation from the Centaur upper stage.

"The antennas are furled and they have a certain amount of days that they can stay furled," Calero said. "If they pass that, then the antennas, when they're deployed, they can actually degrade in space and so we have to play close attention to how long they stay furled. So it was really challenging trying to schedule the shipping of the spacecraft with the moving launch date. We're still watching it very closely."

TDRS-K will be the 11th TDRS launched by NASA since it began building the space-borne network in 1983. The most recent spacecraft launched in 2002 on an Atlas IIA.

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NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System offers upgrade to vital communications net

NASA presents a video tribute to the astronauts of the Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia tragedies.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

This should be the saddest week of the year for NASA which is marking the anniversaries of three fatal tragedies, including the 10th anniversary of the shuttle Columbia's catastrophic breakup. But the way NASA Administrator Charles Bolden sees it, this week is not just about mourning 17 dead astronauts.

"I think this is not a memorial. It's a celebration, because of what they made possible," he told NBC News this month during a visit to Seattle. "We're commemorating them, and we're thanking them by continuing to move forward and not dropping back and dwelling on the pain. They'd be pretty angry, I think, if they saw that."

The week of celebration and, yes, of commemoration begins on Sunday with the 46th anniversary of the 1967 Apollo 1 launch-pad fire. The 27th anniversary of the 1986 Challenger explosion follows on Monday. This year, NASA is focusing the most on Friday, the 10th anniversary of the Columbia tragedy, which has been set aside as the agency's "Day of Remembrance" for all of its fallen astronauts.

Ever since the loss of Columbia and its crew of seven, NASA has organized solemn commemorations during the last week of January.

"We honor the memory of all three crews that were lost over the history of human spaceflight," Bolden explained. "We thought it was fitting that it be somewhere around the dates of those three losses. We think about this every day, to be quite honest. But we take these particular times and set them aside, when we can let everyone else around the world join us and help celebrate."

There's that word again.

"I use the term 'celebrate' because we have to remember that, yeah, we lost some valiant people but what their sacrifice brought is what we should really be thinking about: the fact that they dared to challenge and do things differently," Bolden said. "Because of what they did, we're well on the cusp of going deeper into space than we've ever gone before."

Each tragedytook a terribletoll and in each case, NASA learned from its mistakes:

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NASA celebrates its fallen astronauts

Satellite Deployment: "Inertial Upper Stage" 1988 NASA
more at scitech.quickfound.net "This video details the importance of the Inertial Upper Stage in projecting various satellites from the Shuttle #39;s cargo bay." Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). creativecommons.org en.wikipedia.org The Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), originally designated the Interim Upper Stage, is a two-stage solid-fueled rocket upper stage developed by the US Air Force for raising payloads from low Earth orbit to higher orbits following launch aboard a Titan III(34)D or Titan IV rocket, or from the payload bay of the Space Shuttle... Development During the development phase of the Space Shuttle (1969--1974), NASA, with reluctant support from the Air Force, wanted an upper stage that can be used on the Space Shuttle, but at the same time, can be switched over to the Titan III rocket (then the most powerful unmanned rocket in the US fleet, since the Saturn INT-21, a derivative of the Saturn V rocket, was only used once for the launch of Skylab in 1973), in the case the Shuttle ran into lengthy delays either from development or testing. Although NASA wanted to adopt a version of the Centaur upper stage for its planetary missions, the Air Force wanted to use ...

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Satellite Deployment: "Inertial Upper Stage" 1988 NASA - Video

NASA AIRS
Infrared technology, 3D imaging! Theoe are just two ways NASA helps us understand our planet! Especially when it comes to greenhouse gases, and one of them we don #39;t hear much about. Adam brings us the scoop from NASA #39;s Jet Propulsion Laboratory!

By: EcoCompanyTV

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NASA AIRS - Video

NASA | Two Solar Eruptions: Jan. 23, 2013, The first was not directed at Earth; the second one is
Two Solar Eruptions: Jan. 23, 2013 NASA | SOHO | Goddard Space Flight Center | CME This movie shows two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) erupting from the sun on Jan. 23, 2013. The first was not directed at Earth; the second one is, but is not expected to have a strong impact. The movie was captured by the joint ESA/NASA mission the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), beginning at 7 pm EST on Jan. 22 and ending at 5:30 pm Jan. 23. On Jan. 23, 2013, at 9:55 am EST, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection, or CME. Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and ESA/NASA #39;s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 375 miles per second, which is a fairly typical speed for CMEs. Credit: ESA, NASA/SOHO/Goddard Space Flight Center

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NASA | Two Solar Eruptions: Jan. 23, 2013, The first was not directed at Earth; the second one is - Video

NASA Space Anomalies 2013 1080 HD
Small collection of Anomalies from the NASA archives, Some are very interesting also, especially the huge hanger door on the moon, still unexplained. ADG Facebook: http://www.facebook.com Follow ADG on Twitter: twitter.com

By: StephenHannardADGUK

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Nasa Says Solar Eruption Headed Toward Earth
This video shows two massive eruptions on the Sun #39;s surface. The first was not directed at Earth. The second eruption is headed our way but NASA says it #39;s not expected to have a strong impact. find out more spaceweather.com youtu.be

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Nasa Says Solar Eruption Headed Toward Earth - Video

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) A vintage rocket engine built to blast the first U.S. lunar mission into Earth's orbit more than 40 years ago is again rumbling across the Southern landscape.

The engine, known to NASA engineers as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time. The flight went off without a hitch, but no thanks to the engine it was grounded because of a glitch during a test in Mississippi and later sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it sat for years.

Now, young engineers who weren't even born when Armstrong took his one small step are using the bell-shaped motor in tests to determine if technology from Apollo's reliable Saturn V design can be improved for the next generation of U.S. missions back to the moon and beyond by the 2020s.

They're learning to work with technical systems and propellants not used since before the start of the space shuttle program, which first launched in 1981.

Nick Case, 27, and other engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center on Thursday completed a series of 11 test-firings of the F-6049's gas generator, a jet-like rocket which produces 30,000 pounds of thrust and was used as a starter for the engine. They are trying to see whether a second-generation version of the Apollo engine could produce even more thrust and be operated with a throttle for deep-space exploration.

There are no plans to send the old engine into space, but it could become a template for a new generation of motors incorporating parts of its design.

In NASA-speak, the old 18-foot-tall motor is called an F-1 engine. During moon missions, five of them were arranged at the base of the 363-foot-tall Saturn V system and fired together to power the rocket off the ground toward Earth orbit.

Thursday's test used one part of the engine, the gas generator, which powers the machinery to pump propellant into the main rocket chamber. It doesn't produce the massive orange flame or clouds of smoke like that of a whole F-1, but the sound was deafening as engineers fired the mechanism in an outdoor test stand on a cool, sunny afternoon.

The device produced a plume that resembled a blow torch the size of two buses and set fire to a grassy area, which was quickly extinguished.

"It's not small," Case said. "It's pretty beefy on its own."

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NASA testing vintage engine from Apollo 11 rocket

A small NASA space telescope has revealed surprising magnetic braids of super-hot matter in the sun's outer atmosphere, a find that may explain the star's mysteriously hot corona, researchers say.

The discovery, made by NASA's High-Resolution Coronal Imager, or Hi-C, also may lead to better space weather forecasts, the scientists added.

"With potential annual economic impacts of tens to hundreds of billions of dollars domestically during periods of high solar activity, accurate forecasts of the local space weather environment can possibly save billions for power systems, commercial aircraft and a number of other economic sectors," said study author Jonathan Cirtain, who led the Hi-C sun corona mission.

Cirtain,a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,and his team launched the 9.5-inch(24 centimeters) telescope last July on a 10-minute flight just beyond Earth's atmosphere to study the corona, the sun's million-degree outer atmosphere. The telescope snapped 165 photos in stunning detail before parachuting back to Earth. [NASA's Hi-C Photos: Best View Ever of Sun's Corona]

The sun's corona revealed

The surface of the sun is unsurprisingly hot, up to 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit (6,125 degrees Celsius). Bizarrely, however, the corona the outer atmosphere far above the sun's surface is hotter by a thousandfold, even in the absence of solar flares.

Scientists recently found that powerful magnetic waves rippling from below the sun's surface may heat the corona by 2.7 million degrees F (1.5 million degrees C). However, that alone would not account for the corona's ultra-hot temperatures.

Now high-resolution images of the sun's corona support the idea of magnetic braids generating tremendous amounts of heat, possibly enough to explain the readings of up to 10.8 million degrees F (6 million degrees C).

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NASA Telescope Reveals 'Magnetic Braids' in Sun's Atmosphere

Using a relatively small telescope, NASA scientists were able to capture images of an active region of the sun. Other telescopes focus on larger swaths of the sun, while this one zoomed in on 'real fine structure'.

While many NASA space telescopes soar in orbit for years, the agency's diminutive Hi-C telescopetasted space for just 300 seconds, but it was enough time to see through the sun's secretive atmosphere.

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Designed to observe the hottest part of the sun its corona the small High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) launched on a suborbital rocket that fell back to Earth without circling the planet even once. The experiment revealed never-before-seen "magnetic braids" of plasma roiling in the sun's outer layers, NASA announced today (Jan. 23)

"300 seconds of data may not seem like a lot to some, but it's actually a fair amount of data, in particular for an active region" of the sun, Jonathan Cirtain,Hi-C missionprincipal investigator at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said during a NASA press conference today.

The solar telescope snapped a total of 165 photos during its mission, which lasted 10 minutes from launch to its parachute landing.

Hi-C launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexicoatop a sounding rocket in July 2012. The mission cost a total of $5 million a relative bargain for a NASA space mission, scientists said. The experiment was part of NASA's Sounding Rocket Program, which launches about 20 unmanned suborbital research projects every year. [NASA's Hi-C Photos: Best View Ever of Sun's Corona]

"This mission exemplifies the three pillars of the [sounding rocket] program: world-class science, a breakthrough technology demonstration, and the training of the next generation of space scientists," said Jeff Newmark, a Sounding Rocket Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hi-Cused a modified Cassegrain telescope with a 9.5-inch-diameter mirror to take close-up images of an active region on the sun, achieving a resolution equivalent to sighting a dime from 10 miles away.

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NASA sun close-ups, 'never-before-seen'

Artist's impression of Euclid space telescope. Credit: ESA/C. Carreau

Published: Jan. 24, 2013 at 6:00 PM

GREENBELT, Md., Jan. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it is joining a European Space Agency mission designed to investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.

A space telescope named Euclid will launch in 2020 and spend six years mapping as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over more than one-third of the sky.

Its mission is to gather clues about the dark matter and dark energy that influence the evolution of the universe in ways that still are poorly understood, the space agency reported Thursday.

"NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one of the greatest science mysteries of our time," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.

NASA will contribute 16 state-of-the-art infrared detectors and four spare detectors for one of two science instruments planned for Euclid, he said.

Dark matter first was postulated in 1932, but still has not been detected directly. Called dark matter because it does not interact with light, its existence can only be inferred though its interaction with ordinary matter through gravity.

While dark matter pulls matter together, dark energy -- about which even less in known or understood -- is pushing the universe apart at ever-increasing speeds.

It is hoped Euclid will yield the best measurements yet of changes in the acceleration of the universe, providing new clues about the evolution and fate of the cosmos, NASA said.

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NASA to join in 'dark universe' hunt

While many NASA space telescopes soar in orbit for years, the agency's diminutive Hi-C telescopetasted space for just 300 seconds, but it was enough time to see through the sun's secretive atmosphere.

Designed to observe the hottest part of the sun its corona the small High-Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) launched on a suborbital rocket that fell back to Earth without circling the planet even once. The experiment revealed never-before-seen "magnetic braids" of plasma roiling in the sun's outer layers, NASA announced today (Jan. 23)

"300 seconds of data may not seem like a lot to some, but it's actually a fair amount of data, in particular for an active region" of the sun, Jonathan Cirtain, Hi-C mission principal investigator at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said during a NASA press conference today.

The solar telescope snapped a total of 165 photos during its mission, which lasted 10 minutes from launch to its parachute landing.

Hi-C launched from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexicoatop a sounding rocket in July 2012. The mission cost a total of $5 million a relative bargain for a NASA space mission, scientists said. The experiment was part of NASA's Sounding Rocket Program, which launches about 20 unmanned suborbital research projects every year. [NASA's Hi-C Photos: Best View Ever of Sun's Corona]

"This mission exemplifies the three pillars of the [sounding rocket] program: world-class science, a breakthrough technology demonstration, and the training of the next generation of space scientists," said Jeff Newmark, a Sounding Rocket Program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hi-Cused a modified Cassegrain telescope with a 9.5-inch-diameter mirror to take close-up images of an active region on the sun, achieving a resolution equivalent to sighting a dime from 10 miles away.

While NASA already has telescopes in orbit constantly monitoring the whole surface of the sun, such as the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), the Hi-C mission allowed scientists to focus in on a smaller region than SDO is able to.

"SDO has a global view of the sun," Newmark said. "What this research does is act like a microscope and it zooms in on the real fine structure that's never been seen before."

The next step, the researchers said, is to design a follow-up instrument to take advantage of the new telescope technology tested out by Hi-C, to observe for a longer period of time on an orbital mission.

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How NASA Revealed Sun's Hottest Secret in 5-Minute Spaceflight

NASA has joined the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Euclid mission, a space telescope designed to investigate the cosmological mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Euclid will launch in 2020 and spend six years mapping the locations and measuring the shapes of as many as 2 billion galaxies spread over more than one-third of the sky. It will study the evolution of our universe, and the dark matter and dark energy that influence its evolution in ways that still are poorly understood. The telescope will launch to an orbit around the sun-Earth Lagrange point L2. The Lagrange point is a location where the gravitational pull of two large masses, the sun and Earth in this case, precisely equals the force required for a small object, such as the Euclid spacecraft, to maintain a relatively stationary position behind Earth as seen from the sun. "NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one of the greatest science mysteries of our time," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. NASA and ESA recently signed an agreement outlining NASA's role in the project. NASA will contribute 16 state-of-the-art infrared detectors and four spare detectors for one of two science instruments planned for Euclid. "ESAs Euclid mission is designed to probe one of the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology, and we welcome NASAs contribution to this important endeavor, the most recent in a long history of cooperation in space science between our two agencies," said Alvaro Gimnez, ESAs Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. In addition, NASA has nominated three U.S. science teams totaling 40 new members for the Euclid Consortium. This is in addition to 14 U.S. scientists already supporting the mission. The Euclid Consortium is an international body of 1,000 members who will oversee development of the instruments, manage science operations and analyze data. Euclid will map the dark matter in the universe. Matter as we know it -- the atoms that make up the human body, for example -- is a fraction of the total matter in the universe. The rest, about 85 percent, is dark matter consisting of particles of an unknown type. Dark matter first was postulated in 1932, but still has not been detected directly. It is called dark matter because it does not interact with light. Dark matter interacts with ordinary matter through gravity and binds galaxies together like an invisible glue. While dark matter pulls matter together, dark energy pushes the universe apart at ever-increasing speeds. In terms of the total mass-energy content of the universe, dark energy dominates. Even less is known about dark energy than dark matter. Euclid will use two techniques to study the dark universe, both involving precise measurements of galaxies billions of light-years away. The observations will yield the best measurements yet of how the acceleration of the universe has changed over time, providing new clues about the evolution and fate of the cosmos. Euclid is an ESA mission with science instruments provided by a consortia of European institutes and with important participation from NASA. NASA's Euclid Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. JPL will contribute the infrared flight detectors for the Euclid science instrument. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will test the infrared flight detectors prior to delivery. Three U.S. science teams will contribute to science planning and data analysis. JPL is managed by for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For more information about Euclid, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/euclid , http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=102 and http://www.euclid-ec.org/ .

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NASA Officially Joins ESA's 'Dark Universe' Mission

NASA is unveiling a new documentary film about the history of Mars exploration today (Jan. 23) to an audience in the Los Angeles area, and there's a chance the movie could eventually get distributed nationally.

"The Changing Face of Mars" premieres tonight at 8 p.m. PST at the California Institute of Technology's Beckman Auditorium in Pasadena. Admission is free, with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

The 90-minute documentary, which was produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), chronicles humanity's efforts to explore the Red Planet, from the first flyby in 1965 by NASA's Mariner 4 probe to the current work being done on the Martian surface by the agency's car-size Curiosity rover.

Reminders of those two bookend missions will be on display at the premiere, which will feature a full-scale Curiosity replica and the historic "first image" of Mars a hand-drawn color portrait put together in 1965 using data beamed home by Mariner 4.

One aim of "The Changing Face of Mars" is to highlight and preserve the contributions of the 1960s-era pioneers, who blazed a trail to the Red Planet that engineers at NASA and other space agencies are still following today.

"They didn't know how to build a spacecraft; it had never been done before. There was no one they could turn to to ask how to build a spacecraft," said writer/director/producer Blaine Baggett, who heads JPL's office of communication and education.

"So I just have a tremendous respect and appreciation for those who came before, and I'm bound and determined to capture their memories and experiences so we have them, before they're lost for good," Baggett told SPACE.com.

"The Changing Face of Mars" is the fourth installment in Baggett's ongoing series "Beginnings of the Space Age." None of the titles are available nationally at the moment, though Baggett said discussions about a possible deal to distribute all four are underway.

Baggett hopes the series includes eight or nine films eventually.

"There are four or five more films, if I can last out and they keep me here that long," he said.

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NASA to Premiere New Mars Exploration Film Today

The older, smaller cousin of NASA's huge Mars rover Curiosity is quietly celebrating a big milestone today (Jan. 24) nine years on the surface of the Red Planet.

NASA's Opportunity rover landed on Mars the night of Jan. 24, 2004 PST (just after midnight EST on Jan. 25), three weeks after its twin, Spirit, touched down. Spirit stopped operating in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong, helping scientists better understand the Red Planet's wetter, warmer past.

"No one could've imagined how good the exploration and scientific discovery would be for this vehicle, looking from the perspective of nine years ago," said John Callas, Opportunity's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's been a phenomenal accomplishment."

The headline-stealing Curiosity rover, for its part, touched down on Aug. 5, 2012, marking the next step in Mars exploration. The car-size Curiosity weighs about 1 ton five times more than either Spirit or Opportunity.

Long-lived rovers

Spirit and Opportunity were originally supposed to spend three months searching for evidence of past water activity on the Red Planet. The golf-cart-size robots found plenty of such signs at their separate landing sites, showing that Mars was not always the cold and arid planet we know today. [Most Amazing Discoveries by Spirit and Opportunity]

For example, in 2007 Spirit uncovered an ancient hydrothermal system in Gusev Crater, suggesting that two key ingredients for life as we know it liquid water and an energy source were both present in some parts of Mars long ago.

And Opportunity is currently inspecting clay deposits along the rim of Mars' huge Endeavour Crater. Clays form in relatively neutral (as opposed to acidic or basic) water, so the area may once have been capable of supporting primitive microbial life, researchers say.

"This is our first glimpse ever at conditions on ancient Marsthat clearly show us a chemistry that would've been suitable for life at the Opportunity site," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, said of the discovery at a conference last month.

The rovers rolled far beyond their 90-day warranties. Spirit finally stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, after getting mired in soft sand and failing to maneuver into a position that would allow it to slant its solar panels toward the sun over the 2009-2010 Martian winter. NASA declared the rover dead in 2011.

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NASA's Opportunity Rover Begins Year 10 on Mars

NASA has officially joined the European Space Agency's Euclid mission, a space telescope that will launch in 2020 to study the mysterious dark matter and dark energy pervading the universe.

NASA will contribute 16 infrared detectors and four spares for one of the Euclid telescope's two planned science instruments, agency officials announced today (Jan. 24). NASA has also nominated 40 new members for the Euclid Consortium, an international body of 1,000 scientists that will oversee the mission and its development.

"NASA is very proud to contribute to ESA's mission to understand one of the greatest science mysteries of our time," John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

Astronomers think the "normal" matter we can see and touch makes up just 4 percent of the universe. The rest is comprised of dark matter and dark energy strange stuff whose existence scientists infer from its influence on the 4 percent.

Dark energy is especially intriguing, since many researchers believe it to be the strange force responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe. But just what it is remains a mystery.

The Euclid mission hopes to shine some light into the universe's darkest corners. After launching to a gravitationally stable spot called the sun-Earth Lagrange point 2, the 4,760-pound (2,160-kilogram)spacecraft will spend six years mapping and studying up to two billion galaxies throughout the universe.

Euclid's observations of these galaxies and their distribution should allow astronomers to better understand how the universe's acceleration has changed over time, revealing key insights about the nature of dark matter and dark energy, NASA officials said.

"ESA's Euclid mission is designed to probe one of the most fundamental questions in modern cosmology, and we welcome NASA's contribution to this important endeavor, the most recent in a long history of cooperation in space science between our two agencies," Alvaro Gimenez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration, said in a statement.

The Euclid mission is slated to cost ESA 606 million euros, or $810 million at current exchange rates. NASA is considering its own dark-energy mission, the roughly $1.5 billion Wide-field Infrared Survey Telescope. If it eventually gets the official go-ahead, WFIRST is unlikely to launch before 2025, agency officials have said.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwallor SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on FacebookandGoogle+.

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NASA Joins European Dark Energy Mission

Summit 6 16 NASA de

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Summit 6 16 NASA de - Video

New measurements by NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies indicate that 2012 was the ninth warmest year since 1880, and that the past decade or so has seen some of the warmest years in the last 132 years.

One way to illustrate changes in global atmospheric temperatures is by looking at how far temperatures stray from normal, or a baseline. For the following map, NASA picked a baseline period using temperatures between 1951 and 1980, and compared temperature global temperature readings from 2012.

Temperature anomalies are displayed for 2012 (top), and over time (bottom) in this NASA graphic. The warming trend is apparent from the 1880s onward.

NASAs Earth Observatory blog explains:

The average temperature in 2012 was about 14.6 degrees Celsius (58.3 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 0.55C (1.0F) warmer than the mid-20th century base period. The average global temperature has increased 0.8C (1.4F) since 1880, and most of that change has occurred in the past four decades.

The long-term trend is clearly represented by plotting temperature anomalies on the line graph, this time from 1880 onward. Again, from NASA:

The line plot above shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2011 as recorded by NASA GISS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, the Japanese Meteorological Agency, and the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom. All four institutions tally temperature data from stations around the world and make independent judgments about whether the year was warm or cool compared to other years.

Even with natural variations due to seasons and other events, we see that average atmospheric temperatures are increasing from decade to decade, which agrees with results from climate models and simulations. And as expected, temperatures have increased as greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, etc) emissions have increased from the U.S. Industrial Revolution in the late 19th Century onwards.

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NASA climate data indicates that the long-term global warming trend is continuing

Jan. 22, 2013 NASA signed an agreement in mid-December for the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide a service module for the Orion spacecraft's Exploration Mission-1 in 2017.

When the Orion spacecraft blasts off atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket in 2017, attached will be the ESA-provided service module -- the powerhouse that fuels and propels the Orion spacecraft.

"Space has long been a frontier for international cooperation as we explore," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for Exploration System Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This latest chapter builds on NASA's excellent relationship with ESA as a partner in the International Space Station, and helps us move forward in our plans to send humans farther into space than we've ever been before."

The agreement primarily maps out a plan for ESA to fulfill its share of operational costs and additional supporting services for the International Space Station by providing the Orion service module and necessary elements of its design for NASA's Exploration Mission-1 in 2017.

There are three major components to the Orion vehicle: the crew capsule, which will carry four astronauts into space on crewed flights and bring them home for a safe landing; the launch abort system, which would pull the crew module to safety in the unlikely event of a life-threatening problem during launch; and the service module, which will house Orion's power, thermal and propulsion systems. The service module is located directly below the crew capsule and will contain the in-space propulsion capability for orbital transfer, attitude control and high-altitude ascent aborts. It also will generate and store power and provide thermal control, water and air for the astronauts. It will remain connected to the crew module until just before the capsule returns to Earth.

"This is not a simple system" said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager. "ESA's contribution is going to be critical to the success of Orion's 2017 mission."

Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 will be the first integrated flight test with both the Orion spacecraft and NASA's new Space Launch System. It will follow the upcoming Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014, in which an uncrewed Orion will launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket and fly to an altitude of 3,600 miles above Earth's surface, farther than a human spacecraft has gone in 40 years. For the flight test, a test service module is being built by Lockheed Martin.

Exploration Mission-1 in 2017 will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to demonstrate the performance of the integrated Space Launch System rocket and the spacecraft prior to a crewed flight. It will be followed by Exploration Mission-2, which will launch Orion and a crew of four astronauts into space.

"We have a lot to look forward to in the coming years with human exploration," Dumbacher said. "NASA is thrilled to have ESA as a partner as we set out to explore our solar system."

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NASA signs agreement for a European-provided Orion service module

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Autodesk Inc., (ADSK) and NASA Ames Research Center are collaborating to research and develop new technology that can monitor and optimize the operational life-cycle of high performance buildings. Researchers from Autodesk Research and NASA will implement Autodesk Project Dasher technology at the NASA Ames Sustainability Base, a 50,000 square foot office building and showcase for technologies enhancing efficient resource utilization, including those developed by NASA for its space and aeronautics missions. Autodesk Project Dasher is an experimental Building Information Modeling (BIM) based platform that can provide building owners and operators with insight into full life-cycle real-time building performance.

With its specialized sustainability features, and because it was designed in-part using Autodesk software for BIM, the NASA Ames Sustainability Base was an ideal choice for this research project. On-site power generation from photovoltaics and a solid oxide fuel cell provide more electricity than the facility requires and contribute excess capacity to the NASA Ames local grid. Sustainability Base also uses landscape design solutions, remediated ground water, and water reclaimed using NASA technology designed to reduce its potable water footprint by 90 percent when compared to a traditional building of comparable size.

NASA Ames operates Sustainability Base not only as an attractive workspace and a high-performing facility, but as a dynamic laboratory for advancing technologies for the built environment. An accurately detailed building information model, accessible and useful to facility operators, is a critical component to managing buildings effectively. Through our collaboration with Autodesk and implementation of Project Dasher, we hope to optimize the lifecycle operations of, and achieve unprecedented operational efficiencies with, Sustainability Base while helping to contribute to industry best practices for use of BIM in building performance management, said Dr. Rose Grymes, Technical Lead for Sustainability, NASA Ames Research Center.

Autodesk Project Dasher is designed to provide the interactive building management capabilities that will enable the on-going optimization of facility function that is critical in high performance buildings. Autodesk researchers are currently engaged with NASA Ames architects, planners, researchers, and facilities engineers to develop and test the visualization and analytical tools inside Project Dasher to better address the gap between design and operations. This collaboration is part of a Non-Reimbursable Space Act Agreement between NASA Ames and Autodesk, Inc.

Our collaboration with NASA Ames is offering a unique opportunity for Autodesk to develop, augment, test, and validate the use of BIM as a process for building lifecycle management, said Jeff Kowalski, Autodesk chief technology officer. Through this cooperation, we are actively improving and modifying the Project Dasher technology so in the future, facility owners and operators will be able to take a more integrative approach to maintaining the complex balance between energy-saving measures and occupant comfort.

Autodesk Research developed Project Dasher in response to the growing need for tools that can help to continuously evaluate and verify building performance. The goal of Project Dasher is to go beyond existing building dashboards to represent a comprehensive framework for monitoring building performance. Project Dasher acts as a visualization hub where collected data from various sources is intuitively aggregated and presented in 3D. This can enhance the ability of building owners and operators to infer more complex causal relationships pertaining to building performance and overall operational requirements. Autodesk Project Dasher is not currently available for commercial use.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries including the last 17 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com.

Autodesk and AutoCAD are a registered trademark or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

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NASA and Autodesk Collaborate on Sustainable Building Performance Monitoring