By NASA // March 10, 2017

Engineers successfully tested the parachutes for NASAs Orion spacecraft at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona Wednesday, March 8. (NASA Image)

(NASA) Engineers successfully tested the parachutes for NASAs Orion spacecraft at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona Wednesday, March 8.

This was the second test in a series of eight that will certify Orions parachutes for human spaceflight.

The test, which dropped an Orion engineering model from a C-17 aircraft at 25,000 feet, simulated the descent astronauts might experience if they have to abort a mission after liftoff.

Orion, which will launch atop NASAs Space Launch System rocket from the agencys Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is built to take astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before.

The spacecraft will carry crew to space, provide emergency abort capabilities, sustain the crew during their mission and provide safe re-entry through Earths atmosphere.

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NASA: Orion Spacecraft Parachutes Tested At US Army Yuma Proving Ground - SpaceCoastDaily.com

Virtual Reality

Antja Chambers, life support systems branch project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, takes viewers on a tour of her work space. Image Credit: NASA.

To celebrate International Womens Day Wednesday and Womens History Month in March, NASA and Google Expeditions have teamed up to launch a series of virtual experiences that bring students into the careers of seven women working in STEM.

The Modern Figures series offers classrooms a three-dimensional glimpse into the kinds of workspaces used by materials scientists, launch directors, software engineers, and other STEM experts, according to prepared statement. The VR tours are part of the Modern Figures program, which gets its inspiration from the 20th Century Fox film Hidden Figures.

Workspaces include:

These are the first NASA-themed career tours available via the free Google Expeditions mobile app, according to the news release.

Further information can be found on NASAs Modern Figures site.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at sravipati@1105media.com.

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NASA, Google Expeditions Celebrate Women in STEM With Virtual Tour - T.H.E. Journal

NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said he believed that NASA "has fared fairly well" in deliberations on the administration's 2018 budget proposal. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

GREENBELT, Md. NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot said that a new NASA authorization bill should provide continuity for the agencys programs despite swirling questions about potential budget cuts.

Lightfoot, speaking at the American Astronautical Societys Goddard Memorial Symposium here March 8, praised the passage the previous evening of a new NASA authorization bill by the House, two and a half weeks after the Senate approved it. That act, expected to be signed into law in the coming days, is the first NASA authorization bill passed by Congress since the fall of 2010.

Its pretty exciting for us. We hadnt had one since 2010, he said. For me, the overall theme of that document is constancy of purpose. It says, Keep going with what your plan is and keep moving.

The bill reaffirms Mars as a long-term destination for human spaceflight, but does require NASA to develop more detailed plans for achieving that goal. The bill also includes a variety of provisions covering the agencys human spaceflight, science, and other programs.

Lightfoot called out in particular the section of the bill establishing a long-term medical monitoring program for former astronauts. Something that NASA had been trying to do for a while is astronaut healthcare, he said. That monitoring, he said, was part of an ethical framework for issues associated with human missions into deep space developed for NASA by the National Academies Institute of Medicine. This is really important to us as we talk about going forward with such missions, he said.

Despite the uncertainty at NASA created by the transition to the new administration of President Donald Trump, Lightfoot said the agency was still focused on continuing its activities. We dont get paralyzed by the transition. We just continue to press forward, he said.

Lightfoot emphasized that, even though the new administration has offered few details about any changes it plans to make to NASAs activities, that he believes that the White House does support the agency. He mentioned the passing references to space in both the presidents inaugural address and one to a joint session of Congress Feb. 28.

I do remain extremely confident that we have a president and an administration that supports what were doing at NASA and wants us to succeed, he said.

Lightfoot said later that he has been working in the last few weeks to make sure NASA is aligned with administration policies. Weve been trying to integrate with the rest of the administration and their policies, so that we know what each other is doing, he said. He added he works on a daily basis with an administration appointee, senior White House adviser Erik Noble, to ensure NASAs plans are integrated with the administrations policies.

There remains uncertainty, though, about NASAs funding levels, particularly given plans announced last week by Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), that spending for non-defense discretionary spending, including NASA, would be cut by $54 billion in the administrations fiscal year 2018 budget proposal. That overall cut would offset an increase in defense spending in the budget proposal, whose outline is scheduled to be released next week.

Lightfoot declined to discuss details about the administrations budget proposal, but did say the agency had responded to the budget passback document it received from OMB outlining its plans for NASAs budget. I think we have fared fairly well, he said. I think you will see that, at the end of the day, NASA has done okay.

Others, though, are less confident about the agencys budget prospects. In a conference luncheon speech, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committees space subcommittee, said he was concerned based on reports of severe cuts in other agencies.

We dont have any specifics for agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation yet, but based on what we know the Trump administrations push to massive cut civil discretionary spending to levels far below the draconian sequester levels that weve seen, theres little room for hope that they will fare much better in the presidents budget, he said.

Peters added that he would oppose any budget proposal that makes sharp cuts to NASA or other civil agencies. I will fight to send any proposal that rejects science, compromises our security, hurts the environment and mortgages our future straight to the garbage dump, if I can, he said, a line that triggered an impromptu round of applause from the audience.

Among agencies reportedly facing sharp cuts in the 2018 budget proposal is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A Washington Post article March 3 said that NOAAs satellite division could see its budget cut by more than 20 percent, or $500 million, in the request.

Former NOAA Administrator Kathryn Sullivan, who was at the luncheon to receive the societys John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award, alluded to the proposed cuts in brief remarks. It is at our peril that we cut the stream of data that equips us with the environmental intelligence that is so vital to public safety and our economy today, she said.

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Lightfoot seeks stability at NASA despite budget uncertainty - SpaceNews

Both the Senate and the House have approved a bill that will send $19.508 billion to NASA and sets some very ambitious directives. All thats standing between the space agency and getting to work is a presidential sign off.

According to Space News, the bill received no vocal opposition on the floor of the House despite its $208 million increase of the budget from 2016. The Senate gave its unanimous approval on February 17th.

Among other things, the budget demands that NASA create a plan to put humans near or on the surface of Mars in the 2030s. Most specifically, the bill mandates a human exploration roadmap should begin with low-Earth orbit, then address in greater detail progress beyond low-Earth orbit to cis-lunar space, and then address future missions aimed at human arrival and activities near and then on the surface of Mars. The section on Mars also instructs NASA to move away from its Asteroid Robotic Redirect Mission and to find ways to apply the progress on that project to the Mars directive.

What else is in the bill? A lot. Its 146 pages long. Lets just run through some of the highlights that jump out. The plan to send a probe to Jupiters moon Europa is approved. A vague directive for NASA to expand permanent human presence beyond low-Earth orbit is included under long-term goals along with a call for a thriving space economy in the 21st Century. And missions to launch the SLS and Orion spacecraft without a crew are set for 2018. A crewed mission that would go to the moon would come next, with a goal of it happening in 2021.

On the more practical end of things, the bill asks NASA to work on building hypersonic and supersonic aircraft that would enable new transportation capabilities. It also asks the agency to develop a plan to enhance its cybersecurity protections. An interesting inclusion considering the recent episode in which a scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently had his work phone compromised by border agents.

Theres a lot of exciting stuff in the bill. Its not necessarily calling for things that NASA hasnt already been working on, but its reassuring to see deadlines, a budget increase and ambitious support coming out of congress.

In regards to that presidential signature, there is a possibility that Trump would veto this bill. The administration has indicated that it wants to eliminate the Earth Science division of NASA that studies climate change among other things. The bill that passed today doesnt mention that at all. So, maybe Trump will just forget that was part of his agenda. The good news is he paid lip service to space exploration in his recent address to congress and he also has a lot of bigger problems to worry about at the moment.

[U.S. Congress via Space News]

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Congress Just Ordered NASA to Get Crackin' on Mars and a Ton of Other Things - Gizmodo

NASA wants to create the coolest spot in the universe to better understand matter and the fundamental nature of gravity.

While understanding that atoms behave in surprising ways at super-low temperatures, NASA has never before created or observed this behavior in space.

As such, the space agency will be sending an ice chest-size box to the International Space Station, where Nobel Prize winner Eric Cornell and other scientists will conduct experiments.

The technology, known as the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), works by using lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic knife to freeze gas atoms to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero more than 100 million times colder than the depths of space.

By creating these extremely low temperatures, NASA is able to develop what is known as Bose-Einstein condensate a state in which atoms move in with one another in waveform, as opposed to individual particles.

While these mysterious waveforms are only observable for fractions of a second on Earth because the pull of gravity causes atoms to continually settle toward the ground, creating Bose-Einstein condensates in space means ultra-cold atoms can hold their wavelike forms longer.

Project scientist Robert Thompson predicts the Bose-Einstein condensates could be observable for up to five to 10 seconds with the help of the CAL, with the possibility down the road to make them last hundreds of seconds.

Studying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity, he said in a statement.

The experiments well do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us insight into gravity and dark energy some of the most pervasive forces in the universe.

Studying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity.

Cold Atom Lab project manager Anita Sengupta added that if scientists can understand the physics, they can possibly learn to use those for more efficient transfer of energy.

The results of these experiments could also result in a number of improved technologies, including sensors, quantum computers and atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation.

Deputy project manager Kamal Oudrhiri said the most exciting applications were those related to dark energy detection.

He added that current models of cosmology divide the universe into 27 percent dark matter, 68 percent dark energy and 5 percent ordinary matter.

This means that even with all of our current technologies, we are still blind to 95 percent of the universe, he said.

Like a new lens in Galileos first telescope, the ultra-sensitive cold atoms in the Cold Atom Lab have the potential to unlock many mysteries beyond the frontiers of known physics.

This article originally appeared on News.com.au.

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NASA wants to mess with dark matter by creating coolest spot in universe - New York Post

If you lived here, youd be home by now (Picture: Reuters/NASA)

If youre getting sick of the way things are going on Earth, we have some good news NASA is working on making Mars habitable for humans.

NASA has developed a massive new strategy for warming Mars up, so people could feasibly survive there.

According to James Green, Director of NASAs Planetary Science Division, scientists are looking at using a giant magnet to transform the planets atmosphere into one that would be safe for humans.

It would create an artificial magnetosphere, that would then protect the planet from the suns harmful radiation.

Mars was stripped of its atmosphere by solar radiation around three billion years ago, turning it into a desert landscape.

NASA, however, are planning to place inflatable structures into a stable orbit around the planet, creating a magnetic dipole at the side of Mars facing the sun.

Over time this would gradually restore the atmosphere, creating a protective layer to induce the greenhouse effect which would then warm the planet up.

The solar system is ours, lets take it, Green told the Planetary Science Vision 2050 conference.

That, of course, includes Mars and for humans to be able to explore Mars, we need a better environment.

This is not terraforming as you may think of it, where we actually artificially change the climate, but we let nature do it, and we do that based on the physics that we know today.

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NASA is working on making Mars safe to live on - Metro

Centre Daily Times

NASA aircraft fly over Centre County for PSU-led project Centre Daily Times The aircraft traveled over Centre County on the sunshiny day as part of the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport-America project, a study funded by NASA and led by Penn State. Selected as part of NASA's Earth Venture program, it's a five-year, $30 million ...

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NASA aircraft fly over Centre County for PSU-led project - Centre Daily Times

(Image: BeeHex)

NASA astronauts may soon be able to 3D-print pizzas in space, thanks to technology built by Columbus and Silicon Valley-based startup BeeHex.

BeeHex's flagship Chef 3D robot -- which can print 12-inch pizzas in less than five minutes -- could mean that space travellers will have a more terrestrial alternative to freeze-dried, prepackaged meals that are designed for nutrition and ease of consumption in microgravity.

In addition to producing a range of toppings from fresh ingredients, Chef 3D can fabricate gluten-free and custom-shaped pizzas, according to BeeHex. Like other 3D printers, Chef 3D connects to a computer that tells it which dough, sauce, and cheese to use.

The cartridges are filled with all the necessary ingredients, and the robot's nozzle starts layering liquefied dough, followed by sauce, toppings, and melted cheese.

The reason pizza was chosen as one of the first foods to be 3D-printed is because it involves layering ingredients, which suits the capabilities of the technology, BeeHex said. Unlike traditional additive manufacturing technologies, Chef 3D relies on pneumatic systems to move ingredients around.

While BeeHex was born out of a NASA project -- NASA provided a $125,000 grant to Systems and Materials Research Consultancy to research how 3D printing could be used to make food -- the startup is focusing on broader commercial applications in places like theme parks, festivals, shopping malls, and sports arenas.

It recently closed a $1 million seed funding round led by food automation specialist and Donatos Pizza founder Jim Grote to support commercial development and deployment.

BeeHex's pre-production prototypes have been exhibited at various conferences, with a soft launch slated for later in the year. The startup will be working with pilot customers in the food business to test the efficacy of the technology.

The startup's co-founders, Anjan Contractor, Chintan Kanuga, Jordan French, and Ben Feltner, as well as investors, are looking to provide printing solutions to high-volume pizza restaurants like Domino's and Pizza Hut.

BeeHex hopes that in the near future, 3D-printed meals will be ordered via an app, with customers also having the ability to customise meals according to their preferences.

While consumers are yet to fully digest the idea of 3D-printed food, there is interest among food companies to adopt the technology. In July last year, for example, London saw the arrival of a restaurant celebrating 3D printed food, furniture, and cutlery.

For three days and three special meals, pop-up restaurant Food Ink took up temporary residence in a Shoreditch side street to showcase the versatility of 3D printing.

The global market for 3D printed food is anticipated to be driven by a need for mass customisation, as 3D printing saves time, labour, and waste.

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NASA astronauts may soon be able to 3D-print pizzas in space - ZDNet

Laurie Abadie, Jamestown native who works in NASAs Human Research Program, visited the Martz Observatory to discuss with a full crowd the research and preparations in place to send humans to Mars. P-J photo by Jimmy McCarthy

FREWSBURG A round-trip to Mars would take three years. That means youre away from your family and friends.

Youd be in a confined and isolated environment and you would survive on nutrition made of freeze-dried food.

Youd be required to exercise every day for two hours just to maintain your bone and muscle strength.

Ready for the journey?

Laurie Abadie, Jamestown native and NASA human space flight specialist, visited the Martz Observatory on Wednesday evening to discuss to a full crowd how NASA is preparing the human body for a mission to Mars.

Abadie has spent over four years in NASAs Human Research Program. She currently works in a NASA office in Cleveland, and prior to that, she spent 10 years at the Johnson Space Center in mission control where she helped cargo ships that traveled to the space station.

What the Human Research Program is tasked with is figuring out all the risks associated with sending humans to space, she said. We basically fund the research both on the ground and in flight to help make sure we keep astronauts not only safe, but healthy to have a successful mission to Mars.

Abadie said the program is examining and researching risks, and one of the biggest ones theyre delving into is space radiation. Abadie said space radiation not only causes nausea and fatigue, but it can also impact memory and the ability to think clearly. The central nervous system can be damaged and theres higher risk for cardiac disease and cancer.

To address the risk, Abadie said NASA uses a unique facility in Long Island, the Brookhaven Lab, to test space radiation.

We test different materials.We test biological samples and cells, she said. We basically send different types of radiation at it to see what would be the best material for a space craft or habitat on Mars to protect the astronauts.

Abadie said the Human Research Program is also addressing issues related to isolation, alternate gravity fields and ensuring theres enough food and medical supplies for a three-year journey.

Abadie said isolation can lead to behavioral health problems with months of confinement in a capsule. As for changes in gravity fields, she said it could cause sickness and an inability to control muscles.

Challenges are still in the way to get humans to Mars, and Abadie said theyre working to mitigate them. Abadie said NASAs looking to make the journey when Earth and Mars are at their closest point. That translates to a six-month trip leaving Earth to reach Mars.

Everything is working to a presence on Mars, she said. To get humans on Mars, we wanted to look for water. We found it and now we want to figure out wheres the best place on Mars to live, is there any life on Mars and basically how well get there.

Abadie was born and raised in Jamestown. She attended the University of Buffalo for undergraduate school where she majored in aerospace engineering.

During her junior year, she applied and was accepted to a cooperative education position at NASA Jobs and Space Center in Houston. She alternated semesters between UB and in Houston working for NASA.

Abadie continued her education and applied for the NASA Fellowship Program, which paid for her graduate school expenses while guaranteeing a job after. She attended the University of Arkansas and got a masters in space and planetary sciences. She went on to receive a second masters at the University of Colorado in space operations.

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Jamestown Native, NASA Member Talks Mission To Mars - Jamestown Post Journal

The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 is the first NASA authorization bill to clear both houses of Congress since the fall of 2010.

WASHINGTON For the first time in nearly six and a half years, Congress has passed a NASA authorization bill with the approval of such a bill March 7 in the House of Representatives.

The House approved on a voice vote the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, S.442, after a brief discussion on the House floor where no members spoke against the bill. The same bill passed the Senate by unanimous consent Feb. 17.

The bill authorizes $19.5 billion in spending for NASA in fiscal year 2017. More importantly, it includes a number of policy provisions directing NASAs activities. They range from development of a detailed plan for NASAs human exploration programs, with the long-term goal of sending humans to Mars, to giving NASA the ability to establish long-term medical monitoring of former astronauts.

This bipartisan and bicameral bill grew to maturity through many long and serious discussions about the future of our nations space program, said Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House space subcommittee, during discussion about the bill on the House floor. Im encouraged by the bills persistent emphasis on the continuity of purpose and stability.

The bill is nearly identical to a bill the Senate passed in December, just after the House adjourned for the year. The new version includes a few provisions not found in the earlier one, including language directing NASA to study the use of the Orion spacecraft as a crew transfer vehicle for the International Space Station as a stopgap if commercial crew vehicles suffer additional delays.

While the bill had broad support, some members highlighted areas of concern that may become issues in later legislation. It is not a perfect bill, said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), ranking member of the House Science Committee. It does not directly address all of NASAs science programs, mainly Earth science and heliophysics. She said she was also critical of authorized funding levels for NASAs science, aeronautics and space technology accounts, but added she supported the bill overall.

The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 reaffirms our support for the bold visions and commitments that will shape Americas future in space, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, said in a statement after the bills passage. This bill reiterates the importance of maintaining NASAs continuity of purpose to ensure America remains a leader in space exploration.

The bill is the first NASA authorization to pass both houses of Congress since the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which the House passed in September 2010 nearly two months after it cleared the Senate. The House worked on several authorization bills in subsequent years, including some which passed the full House, but none made it through the Senate.

This bill had a smooth ride through the House and Senate because of work behind the scenes to address issues before the bill was introduced in the Senate last month. In a January interview, Smith said he and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate space subcommittee, had been working to pre-conference the bill to resolve any problems before its introduction, allowing for a streamlined passage through both Houses. The bill also has the support of the White House, according to congressional sources.

The space industry welcomed the bills passage. Todays approval of the NASA Transition Authorization Act by Congress sends a clear message to the American people and our international partners that our nation remains committed to NASAs space exploration program, Mary Lynne Dittmar, executive director of the Coalition of Deep Space Exploration, said in a March 7 statement.

Dittmar cited the support the 2010 authorization bill provided for human exploration programs, such as the Space Launch System and Orion, as well as space science programs. This new authorization will provide the framework for continued progress towards these national commitments, she said.

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House passes NASA authorization bill - SpaceNews

A test of the Orion human space capsule's parachute system in December 2012. NASA plans to conduct another Orion drop test on March 8, 2017.

The NASA spacecraft that could one day help ferry humans to Mars is scheduled to undergo a parachute test tomorrow (March 8).

The Orion spacecraft can carry humans on long trips into deep space, but once it returns to Earth, it needs a little help touching down. Like the Apollo spacecraft, Orion relies on a parachute system to lower it down through Earth's atmosphere, and safely return astronauts to the ground.

The test is scheduled to take place at 7:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EST/1430 GMT) at the U.S. Armys Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. A model of Orion will be dropped from a C-17 aircraft flying at an altitude of 25,000 feet, according to a statement from the agency. NASA is currently investigating the possibility of flying two astronauts on a test flight of the Orion spacecraft as early as 2019.

Tomorrow's parachute test will simulate what would happen if an abort sequence took place during Orions launch. If something goes wrong with NASA's Space Launch Systems (SLS) rocket that Orion is riding on, NASA officials may decide to abort the flight, meaning the spacecraft would be ejected from its seat atop the rocket. In such an event, the parachutes would deploy and drop the spacecraft safely back to Earth. During an abort sequence, the spacecraft will be traveling at the relatively slow speed of about 130 mph [210 km/h], rather than speeds of about 310 mph [500 km/h] during re-entry after reaching space, according to NASA. The drop will last for about four minutes total; the last one to two minutes will take place under fully deployed parachutes, according to a NASA representative.

Orion's parachute system consists of 11 parachutes in total: three forward bay cover parachutes (deployed first), two drogue parachutes (deployed second, at about 25,000 feet), and three pilot parachutes (deployed at about 9,500 feet) that subsequently deploy three main parachutes. The parachute system can slow down the space capsule to just 20 mph [32 km/h] before touchdown, according to NASA. During tomorrow's test, the Orion team will focus on "deployment of Orion's two drogue parachutes at low speeds, and deployment of its three main parachutes in preparation for landing."

This will be Orion's second airdrop parachute test in a series of eight qualifying drop tests that will replicate various scenarios in which Orion's parachute system would need to be deployed, according to the statement.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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NASA to Test Orion Space Capsule Parachute - Space.com

Honolulu Star-Advertiser

House Passes Bipartisan $19.5 Billion NASA Reauthorization Bill Wall Street Journal (subscription) The House on Tuesday followed the Senate's lead by adopting bipartisan legislation supporting all of NASA's major manned exploration programs but for the first time designated human settlement of Mars as one of the agency's explicit long-term goals. With eyes on Mars, Congress sends NASA bill to TrumpHonolulu Star-Advertiser Moon, Mars the goal of NASA funding bill on President Trump's deskNews 13 Orlando Congress Passes NASA Reform, Reauthorization BillLaw360 (subscription) all 42 news articles »

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House Passes Bipartisan $19.5 Billion NASA Reauthorization Bill - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

NASA is about to launch the coldest place on Earth - the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) - into orbit, where astronauts will use it to create never-before-seen conditions with temperatures 100 million times colder than the depths of space.

The Cold Atom Lab will hitch a ride on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station, where it's hoped the super-chilled box will reveal strange new physics when atoms are cooled to a mere billionth of a degree above absolute zero.

"Studying these hyper-cold atoms could reshape our understanding of matter and the fundamental nature of gravity," said CAL project scientist Robert Thompson, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"The experiments we'll do with the Cold Atom Lab will give us insight into gravity and dark energy - some of the most pervasive forces in the Universe."

In case you've never considered what the coldest place on Earth was until about 30 seconds ago, NASA's Cold Atom Laboratory is an ice chest-sized box equipped with lasers, a vacuum chamber, and an electromagnetic 'knife' to slow particles to an almost motionless state.

The instrument is still in its final stages of construction, so this mission, set to launch in August, will be its first big test.

The plan is to fill the Cold Atom Lab with gas particles aboard the International Space Station, where the unique microgravity environment will allow researchers to observe never-before-seen quantum phenomena that are impossible to detect on Earth.

Of particular interest is the exotic form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate - a 'superfluid' state where atoms morph into mysterious waveforms that have never been observed at Cold Atom Lab temperatures.

Because this state has zero viscosity, atoms are able to move without friction, as if they were a single, solid substance, NASA explains.

"If you had superfluid water and spun it around in a glass, it would spin forever," says Anita Sengupta, the Cold Atom Lab project manager.

"There's no viscosity to slow it down and dissipate the kinetic energy. If we can better understand the physics of superfluids, we can possibly learn to use those for more efficient transfer of energy."

Bose-Einstein condensates are of particular interest to physicists because in this state, the rules switch from classical physics - such as Einstein's theory of general relativity - to quantum physics, and matter starts to behave less like particles and more like waves.

Understanding this transition is the key to one of the biggest open questions in modern physics - when used separately, general relativity and quantum field theory can explain the largest and smallest things in the Universe respectively, but no physicist has ever managed to unify the two into a much-coveted 'theory of everything'.

For that reason, physicists would love to stare at Bose-Einstein condensates for days, but because Earth's gravitational pull puts a swift end to the free fall state necessary to maintain this exotic matter, it's usually only observable for a few fractions of a second.

In the microgravity environment of space, however, scientists should be able to get a much more substantial view of things - NASA predicts they'll be able to maintain Bose-Einstein condensates in the Cold Atom Lab for up to 5 to 10 seconds in space.

Not only could this help us figure out what binds classical and quantum physics together, but a better understanding of Bose-Einstein condensates could lead to more accurate sensors, telescopes, and the atomic clocks used in spacecraft navigation, and could even speed up the race towards the world's first quantum computer.

"Like a new lens in Galileo's first telescope, the ultra-sensitive cold atoms in the Cold Atom Lab have the potential to unlock many mysteries beyond the frontiers of known physics," says Kamal Oudrhiri, deputy project manager of the CAL.

Hurry up, August - we need to see this thing in action!

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NASA Is About to Create the Coldest Place in the Known Universe - ScienceAlert

Bill Nye: Well, talking some more about me, I'm the CEO of The Planetary Society so what I have encouraged the staff to do is focus on our mission. Our mission is exploring the planets, to know the cosmos and our place within it, empowering citizens of the world to be space explorers. So by focusing on your core mission I think it will enable us to work together to make the world better. Now when it comes to NASA, we are very hopeful is that we will acknowledge that NASA is a fantastic envoy or it's a fantastic brand for the United States. People everywhere no matter how they feel about the United States respect what NASA is able to accomplish. First of all when it comes to exploring Mars, which is what we all want to do everybody talks about all the time, let's not have a reset, let's not cancel existing programs for the sake of some imagined or proposed new program, let's finish the Space Launch System, let's finish Orion, let's enable the Falcon heavy to be built and fly this rocket from SpaceX. If United Launch Alliance wants to build the Vulcan let's enable that. Let's do everything all at once in the human spaceflight and stay focused on getting to Mars by setting a date.

One of my favorite blues songs is Set A Date, and he's talking about I believe getting married, but if we set a date for when we would be on Mars we would be much more likely to achieve it than to continually suggest decades from now. And as you may know the Planetary Society did an analysis that shows we could be in orbit around Mars, which would be analogous to the Apollo 8 orbit of the moon in 2033 without changing anything about the NASA budget just adjusting it for inflation. But if people got excited and wanted to go a couple orbits early in 2028 that would be fantastic. That's for one thing. The other thing that we at the Planetary Society very much want NASA to stay focused on are these extraordinary planetary missions. We have Juno in orbit around Jupiter, we have Curiosity and Opportunity still roving on Mars. We have many spacecraft in orbit around Mars. We have New Horizons data is still coming back from I guess it just finished bringing data back from Pluto and now it's onto the next destination in deep the space in 2019.

Keep those missions going because that's where new things happen, where these innovations happen in technology. A very strong argument can be made that we would not have this conversation electronically on the Internet without the U.S. space program, which led to the development of the Internet and so on. So acknowledge that NASA is a great international brand as well as a source of national pride and technological achievement. And I will say to the fossil fuel industries if you're out there, think about making your mission energy production rather than fossil fuel extraction and burning. I mentioned this to executives at Exxon before it was Exxon Mobile many times back in the 1990s when I was working with you all that if you were an energy company rather than a fossil fuel extraction company you could be part of the future instead of part of the past.

Everybody understand no matter what you may think about the energy needs of the United States right now, the future is not going to be coal and oil, it's just is not going to be. Look at it this way, other countries are not going to buy products made with fossil fuels in the future, they're going to put essentially a tax on it, a tariff and the longer we stay the fossil fuel course the more likely we are to run aground. There's a little nautical metaphor for you. But there's just no future in it. I love you all but there's no future in it.

So appreciate the space program's place in the world, both for technological achievement and for statesmanship. And working together we can provide renewable clean electricity for everyone on earth if we just get to work. Let's go.

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NASA: The Beating Heart of America's Innovation Industry - Big Think

In Brief

Now that 3D-printing technology has become more vital and relevant than ever, Silicon Valley startup BeeHexhas harnessed this technology to 3D print pizza. Yes, you read that right. Edible, cheesy, delicious pizza can now be printed by a pre-programmed robot.

Funded by a grant from NASA, the purpose of this invention wasto create a way for astronauts to select and producedelicious food for themselves on missions. As manned missions to Mars become an ever-increasing possibility, astronauts might be spendingmuch more time in space. To save space-goers from the drudgery of choking downfreeze-dried, pre-packaged space food day after day, month after month, NASA decided it was time to develop a way to cook in space.

This technology will soon be adopted commercially for us Earth-dwellers as well. The robot, which has raised$1 million in funding, will be branded as the Chef 3D. The Chef 3D is set to appear at theme parks, malls, and even sports arenas.

While this maybe yet another technology that replaces existing jobs for humans, it will be capable of creating food more quicklyand cleanly than a human chef could. Who knows, perhaps the next time you go to see your favorite sports team play, you will be snacking onrobot food.

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NASA Astronauts Can Now 3D-Print Pizzas in Space - Futurism

Although the movie "Hidden Figures" didn't win any Oscars, it won the hearts and minds of the large audience that packed the Kimball Theatre last Wednesday evening.

The special screening of the movie arranged by Marianne Johnson, Kimball's program manager, was introduced by Dr. Joel Levine, who spent 41 years as a senior scientist at NASA and knew one of the film's real-life heroines. Both the movie and Levine received standing ovation.

The trailer for 'Hidden Figures' describes as "the incredible untold story of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, brilliant African-American women, who served as brains behind one of the greatest operations in history, the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, an achievement that restored the nation's pride and confidence."

Levine, who serves now as research professor at the College of William & Mary's Department of Applied Science, told his audience about the history of NASA, originally called National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, and the Langley Aeronautical Memorial Laboratory, where in 1935 five white women, joined the first computing pool. They were called, "women computers" and they ran calculations on mechanical adding machines. The first black women joined Langley in 1943, in the segregated "West Computer" or "Colored Computer" pool.

By 1946, 400 human computers worked at Langley, and as Bill Barry, NASA Chief Historian noted, "women were much more accurate, much faster and did a better job than men and you could pay them less money than men."

I asked Levine whether he was aware of the important role "women computers" played in NASA's space program.

"I was not really aware of it," he said in an interview with the Gazette. "When I arrived at NASA Langley in 1970, I worked with several women who were originally hired as "computers." They were now engineers, mathematicians and technical editors. Of the three women portrayed in the movie, I only knew Mary Jackson. My wife, Arlene, who worked in the same building as Mary Jackson, knew her much better."

Arlene, worked at NASA for 27 years as coordinator of Green Activities at the Strategic Relationship office. She was also the investigator and author of the scholarly paper on the psychological effects of long-duration space missions and stress amelioration techniques. She earned a mile-long list of awards.

No wonder, when I asked Levine who had the greatest influence on the development of his scientific career, he said without hesitation, "Arlene, my wife of 50 years. She has always been very supportive of my career, its development and its demands."

Reflecting on the dramatic scenes in the movie 'Hidden Figures,' portraying racial segregation at Langley, Levine said, "When I arrived at NASA Langley in July 1970, the Center was totally integrated. The 'computer women' that I personally knew, both black and white were highly intelligent, hardworking and very friendly."

Not surprisingly, the three black women portrayed in the movie had a stellar career at NASA. According to a NASA statement, "Katherine Johnson's calculations proved to be critical to the success of the Apollo Moon landing program and the start of the Space Shuttle program.... In 2015, President Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom."

Dorothy Vaughan, was the first black supervisor at the agency and worked at Langley for 28 years. She taught herself and other women computer programming languages and prepared them for the transition to electronic computers.

Mary Jackson, after 34 years at NASA, had achieved the most senior title within the engineering department. She served as Federal Women's Program Manager and worked to influence the career path of women in science, engineering and mathematical positions.

Shatz is a Williamsburg resident. He is the author of "Reports from a Distant Place," a compilation of his selected columns. The book is available at the Bruton Parish Shop and amazon.com.

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Shedding light on NASA's 'Hidden Figures' - Virginia Gazette

In the Space Station Processing Facility high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a crane is used to lower a protective covering around the Cygnus pressurized cargo module on Feb. 21.

The private spaceflight company Orbital ATKis targeting March 19 for its seventh cargo flight, dubbed OA-7, to the International Space Station.

Packed with supplies and science gear, the Cygnus cargo craft is scheduled to blast off atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocketfrom Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida during a 30-minute launch window beginning at 10:56 p.m. EDT (0256 GMT on March 20).

Along with more than 7,500 lbs. (3,400 kilograms) of cargo and supplies for the astronauts aboard the space station, Cygnus will carry several science experiments, including dozens of cubesats, a new habitat for growing plants and targeted cancer therapies.

Tehcnicians and engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida load supplies and scientific research materials onto the Cygnus spacecraft's pressurized cargo module for the Orbital ATK CRS-7 mission to the International Space Station.

During a prelaunch teleconference Monday (March 6), Henry Martin, small-satellites mission coordinator for NanoRacks in Houston, noted that 38 cubesats, or microsatellites, will hitch a ride to space on the Cygnus cargo craft. Four of the 38 satellites will deploy directly from the Cygnus craft during the flight, and the rest will be deployed from the space station. A group of 28 cubesats from around the world will fly on OA-7 before being deployed from the space station for the QB50 mission, which seeks to investigate Earth's lower thermosphere, the part of the atmosphere that starts at about 50 miles (80 kilometers) above the planet's surface and extends into outer space.

A new plant-growing habitat will also fly to the space station with OA-7. The Advanced Plant Habitatwill be the largest plant-growth system ever launched to the orbiting laboratory and will allow astronauts to grow larger crops than they could previously, Howard Levine, project scientist at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said during the teleconference. [Plants in Space: Photos by Gardening Astronauts]

Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo craft, covered in a protective shroud, arrives at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 23.

One of the experiments flying to the space station on OA-7 will test how new cancer-fighting drugs work in microgravity. By sending this experiment to space, researchers can see how the cancer drug works in 3D as opposed to 2D tests done on a petri dish in a laboratory on Earth, principal project investigator Sourav Sinha CEO of Oncolinx LLC, which develops antibody-drug conjugates said during the teleconference. The project, titled "Efficacy and Metabolism of Azonafide Antibody-Drug Conjugates in Microgravity," seeks to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs while reducing side effects.

Another biology experiment will use magnets to study cell cultures as they grow into 3D shapes in microgravity. During the teleconference, Glauco Souza, principal investigator of the biotechnology startup Nano3D Biosciences in Houston, discussed how magnetized cells and tools will make it easier to study and handle cell cultures in space and make experiments with cell cultures easier to reproduce. This will be the first time that magnets are used for biological studies in space, Souza said. The first cells that astronauts aboard the space station will study using this experiment are lung cancer cells. [How Space Station Tech Is Helping the Fight Against Cancer]

Another experiment, called Red-Data 2, from Terminal Velocity Aerospace in Atlanta, will send along a new type of data-recording device that will ride inside the Cygnus cargo craft as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere while stuffed with nonrecyclable waste from the space station. Both Cygnus and the experiment will burn up upon re-entry, but Red-Data 2 will provide data about the conditions the spacecraft encounters along the way. This experiment may come in handy for testing new heat shields for NASA, John Dec, an engineer at Terminal Velocity Aerospace and principal investigator for the project, said during the teleconference.

For its last cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station, Orbital ATK's Cygnus cargo craft carried a flame experiment and several other science projects. Find out more about the science aboard the last Cygnus mission here.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Private Cygnus Spacecraft to Launch NASA Cargo to Space Station Soon - Space.com

In January, we watched in wonder as NASA's GOES-16 satellite forwarded a gorgeous view of our Blue Marble back to Earth. The satellite is on a mission to monitor Earth weather, but it also specializes in tracking lightning strikes and thunderstorms. NASA shared some of its first lightning images on Monday.

The GOES-16 Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instrument is the first of its kind. It essentially looks for brief, bright flashes of light that indicate the presence of lightning, including both in-cloud and cloud-to-ground strikes.

"When combined with radar and other satellite data, GLM data may help forecasters anticipate severe weather and issue flood and flash flood warnings sooner," says NASA. It can also help monitor areas where lightning causes wildfires.

10

NASA sees dramatic Earth weather from space (pictures)

GOES-16, a joint project from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, hangs out about 22,300 miles (36,000 kilometers) above the planet and keeps an eye on the Western Hemisphere.

NASA released a video animation of lightning events during a Texas storm in mid-February as an example of what GOES-16 can see from above. A still image, also released on Monday, collects one hour of GLM lightning data shown over a gray-scale picture of Earth. Bright red, orange and yellow areas note the optical intensity of strikes.

The satellite launched in November 2016 on a mission to monitor everything from hurricanes to solar flares. The lightning mapper is just one of a suite of high-tech tools designed to help forecasters track storms and issue timely severe weather warnings.

The GOES-16 Goestationary Lightning Mapper gathers lightning data. This image shows one hour of data.

Life, disrupted: In Europe, millions of refugees are still searching for a safe place to settle. Tech should be part of the solution. But is it?

Technically Incorrect: Bringing you a fresh and irreverent take on tech.

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NASA weather satellite sends striking lightning images - CNET

A composite image of a coronal mass ejection as seen from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft (gold), the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (red), and the Mauna Loa Solar Observatory's K-Cor coronagraph (blue). NASA/ESA/SOHO/SDO/Joy Ng and MLSO/K-Cor

Researchers who developed the new technique used an instrument called a coronagraph, which blocks the sun's bright light and allows astronomers to see what's going on in the sun's corona, or outer atmosphere. With this tool, scientists from NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Colorado found a way to detect SEP activity tens of minutes earlier than current forecasting techniques allow, which will ultimately help protect astronauts in space, NASA officials said a statement.

Most of the current space-weather research uses space-based coronagraphs. The new technique, by contrast, employs ground-based coronagraphs, which can deliver observations "almost instantly, and at a much higher time resolution than satellite instruments," NASA officials said.

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"With space-based coronagraphs, we get images back every 20-30 minutes," Chris St. Cyr, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in the statement. "You'll see the CME in one frame, and by the time you get the next frame which contains the information we need to tell how fast it's moving the energetic particles have already arrived [at Earth]."

Solar particles released during a

The researchers' findings, published Jan. 30 in the

"Currently, processed images from K-Cor are available on the internet in less than 15 minutes after they're taken," Joan Burkepile, a study co-author based at NCAR and principal investigator for the K-Cor instrument,

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NASA Develops New Tool to Protect Astronauts From Deadly 'Storms' - NBCNews.com

Close call! NASA's Mars-orbiting spacecraft shifted course last week to avoid a collision with Mars' dark moon Phobos.

The MAVEN spacecraft short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN has been orbitng Mars for more than two years, monitoring the Red Planet's atmosphere. On Feb. 28, it performed a rocket motor burn to speed up just a little bit and change trajectories to avoid crossing paths with Phobos, NASA officials said in a statement. The total speedup was just 0.4 meters per second, which is less than 1 mile per hour.

Researchers noticed that Phobos and MAVEN had a chance of colliding March 6. That gave them a week of advance notice in order to pull off the small maneuver to avoid a crash. Now, the two will miss each other by about 2.5 minutes (before, their orbits were crossing the same point within just 7 seconds of each other). This is the first time the spacecraft has moved to avoid encountering Phobos, officials said in the statement. [Mars Photos from NASA's MAVEN Probe]

"Kudos to the [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] navigation and tracking teams for watching out for possible collisions every day of the year, and to the MAVEN spacecraft team for carrying out the maneuver flawlessly," Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator and researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, said in the statement.

Phobos is a lumpy, asteroid-size moon orbiting very close to Mars, streaked with stretch-mark grooves . Phobos and its slightly smaller sister moon Deimos are both dark gray, which makes them among the least reflective objects in the solar system . Phobos has been moving closer to Mars over time and is destined for an eventual descent into the planet one collision that moon won't avoid.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains . Follow us @Spacedotcom , Facebook and Google+ . Original article on Space.com .

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NASA spacecraft avoids collision with Martian moon Phobos - Fox News