Orbital ATK Manufactures World #39;s Largest Solid Rocket Boosters For NASA #39;s SLS
Orbital ATK, recently formed from the merger or aerospace giants Orbital Sciences Corporation and Alliant Techsystems, Inc., is in the process of designing, testing and manufacturing the boosters...
By: Matthew Travis
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Orbital ATK Manufactures World's Largest Solid Rocket Boosters For NASA's SLS - Video
Bright Fireball Seen Over New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio
A very bright fireball seen over New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania at 4:45:17 EST this morning, February 17th. It was captured by three NASA cameras. The video came from a NASA camera located...
By: NASA #39;s Marshall Center
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Bright Fireball Seen Over New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio - Video
MARK KELLY: NASA RELEASES OF ANGELS 8 IMAGES
MARK KELLY: NASA RELEASES OF ANGELS 8 IMAGES.
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February 18, 2015
The moons Nix and Hydra are visible in a series of images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft. (Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Southwest Research) Institute
Provided by NASA
Exactly 85 years after Clyde Tombaughs historic discovery of Pluto, the NASA spacecraft set to encounter the icy dwarf planet this summer is providing its first views of the small moons orbiting Pluto.
The moons Nix and Hydra are visible in a series of images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft from Jan. 27-Feb. 8, at distances ranging from about 125 million to 115 million miles (201 million to 186 million kilometers). The long-exposure images offer New Horizons best view yet of these two small moons circling Pluto which Tombaugh discovered at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Feb. 18, 1930.
Professor Tombaughs discovery of Pluto was far ahead its time, heralding the discovery of the Kuiper Belt and a new class of planet, says Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. The New Horizons team salutes his historic accomplishment.
Assembled into a seven-frame movie, the new images provide the spacecrafts first extended look at Hydra (identified by a yellow diamond ) and its first-ever view of Nix (orange diamond). The right-hand image set has been specially processed to make the small moons easier to see. Its thrilling to watch the details of the Pluto system emerge as we close the distance to the spacecrafts July 14 encounter, says New Horizons science team member John Spencer, also from Southwest Research Institute. This first good view of Nix and Hydra marks another major milestone, and a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of Plutos discovery.
These are the first of a series of long-exposure images that will continue through early March, with the purpose of refining the teams knowledge of the moons orbits. Each frame is a combination of five 10-second images, taken with New Horizons Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) using a special mode that combines pixels to increase sensitivity at the expense of resolution. At left, Nix and Hydra are just visible against the glare of Pluto and its large moon Charon, and the dense field of background stars. The bright and dark streak extending to the right of Pluto is an artifact of the camera electronics, resulting from the overexposure of Pluto and Charon. As can be seen in the movie, the spacecraft and camera were rotated in some of the images to change the direction of this streak, in order to prevent it from obscuring the two moons.
The right-hand images have been processed to remove most of Pluto and Charons glare, and most of the background stars. The processing leaves blotchy and streaky artifacts in the images, and also leaves a few other residual bright spots that are not real features, but makes Nix and Hydra much easier to see. Celestial north is inclined 28 degrees clockwise from the up direction in these images.
Nix and Hydra were discovered by New Horizons team members in Hubble Space Telescope images taken in 2005. Hydra, Plutos outermost known moon, orbits Pluto every 38 days at a distance of approximately 40,200 miles (64,700 km), while Nix orbits every 25 days at a distance of 30,260 miles (48,700 km). Each moon is probably between 25-95 miles (approximately 40- 150 kilometers) in diameter, but scientists wont know their sizes more precisely until New Horizons obtains close-up pictures of both of them in July. Plutos two other small moons, Styx and Kerberos, are still smaller and too faint to be seen by New Horizons at its current range to Pluto; they will become visible in the months to come.
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Provided by The Verge
A 500-pound space rock about two-feet in diameter entered the Earth's atmosphere outside of Pittsburgh last night, according to NASA. The object detected by three NASA meteor cameras was moving at a speed of 45,000 miles per hour. Visibility was lost at an altitude of 13 miles, but the space agency speculates that fragments, or meteorites, might be found on the ground east of Kittanning, PA. NASA posted this animation from the meteor's perspective showing its trajectory as it raced towards western Pennsylvania.
NASA maintains a network of more than a dozen specialized black-and-white cameras in its All Sky Fireball Network. The growing network of cameras was set up by the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) with the aim of observing fireballs, or meteors brighter than the planet Venus. 15 cameras are currently spread across the US offering overlapping fields of view, located at schools, observatories, and other public spaces designed for the worship of science.
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The New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC) 2015, co-chaired by a NASA researcher, published its latest report which details significant future increases in temperature, precipitation and sea level in the New York metropolitan area.
The report aims to increase current and future resiliency of the communities, citywide systems and infrastructure in the New York metropolitan region to a range of climate risks. Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, co-chairs the New York City panel.
The NPCC was founded in 2008 to study the effects of climate change on New York Citys five boroughs and surrounding region. As some of the leading Earth scientists in the metropolitan New York area, GISS researchers have been involved in the panels work since its beginning. The GISS climate model was used in climate projections, and scientists at GISS led the technical team, which analyzed the scientific data and developed the projections.
The NPCC is a prototype for how federal government scientists and municipal policymakers can work together, said Rosenzweig, who also is affiliated with the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia Universitys Earth Institute, New York. "This collaboration will help ensure that climate science developed for the New York metropolitan region informs and draws from the best available information, positioning residents and planners to confront expected future changes in the most effective way possible."
Increasing temperature and heavier precipitation events, along with sea level rise, are projected by the report to accelerate in the coming decades, increasing risks for the people, economy and infrastructure of New York City.
Specific report findings about local New York observations and projections include:
- Mean annual temperature has increased a total of 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit (F) from 1900 to 2013. Future mean annual temperatures are projected to increase 4.1 to 5.7 degrees F by the 2050s and 5.3 to 8.8 degrees F by the 2080s, relative to the 1980s base period. The frequency of heat waves is projected to increase from 2 per year in the 1980s to roughly 6 per year by the 2080s.
- Mean annual precipitation has increased by a total of 8 inches from 1900 to 2013. Future mean annual precipitation is projected to increase 4 to 11 percent by the 2050s and 5 to 13 percent by the 2080s, relative to the 1980s base period.
- Sea levels have risen in New York City 1.1 feet since 1900. That is almost twice the observed global rate of 0.5 to 0.7 inches per decade over a similar time period. Projections for sea level rise in New York City increase from 11 inches to 21 inches by the 2050s, 18 inches to 39 inches by the 2080s, and, 22 inches to 50 inches, with the worst case of up to six feet, by 2100. Sea level rise projections are relative to the 2000 to 2004 base period.
Climate change research isnt just something for the future, said Rosenzweig. Its affecting how key policy decisions are being made now. NASA is proud to work with New York City and other intergovernmental entities to provide world-class science.
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Synopsis - Feb 17, 2015
General Information
Contracting Office Address
NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Procurement Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812
Description
REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)
I. SUMMARY
The Centennial Challenges Program is NASAs flagship program for technology prize competitions (www.nasa.gov/challenges). The Centennial Challenges Program directly engages the public, academia, and industry in open prize competitions to stimulate innovation in technologies that have benefit to NASA and the nation. The program is an integral part of NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing, and flying hardware for use in NASAs future missions. For more information about NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech .
The Centennial Challenges program is seeking input on a Space RACE challenge being considered for start in 2015. The challenge would require competitors to build vehicles capable of autonomous rendezvous, capture, and manipulation of small objects at high speeds with applications for the Mars Sample Return campaign, lunar sample return missions, and many other commercial venues.
The purposes of this RFI are: 1) to gather feedback on the competition being considered, 2) to determine the level of interest in potentially competing in this challenge, and 3) to understand the applicability of the technology developed by the competition for other non-government applications.
Link:
NASA Centennial Challenges Program Space Race Challenge Request for Information
A new NASA study is predicting the occurrence of severe "megadroughts" across the United States in the second half of this century, that are set to be more extreme and prolonged than any droughts that have taken place in the region for the past 1,000 years. According to the study, one of the key driving forces behind the devastating droughts will be the prolific creation of human-produced greenhouse gasses.
The study made use of several climate models including one spearheaded by NASA, and is the first of its kind to use historical data stretching back as far as 1,000 years. Most modern drought indicators only use data from around 100 years in the past, however NASA's most recent study was able to draw on environmental conditions prevailing in the distant past by making use of a well established tree-ring database.
Using this wealth of natural information, the team were able to pinpoint drought events by observing the spaces between rings in tree trunks, a process known as dendrochronology. Some trees grow significantly more during years with prevalent rainfall, producing wider spacing between the rings, and have stunted growth during periods of drought, creating closer rings. By observing ring patterns in the same species of tree during modern droughts, the study was able to produce accurate drought maps for the last 1,000 years. This allowed climate scientists to examine the big picture, taking into account drought cycles in a much longer context.
30-cm (11.8-in)-deep moisture projection based on NASA's moderate carbon emission scenario in the year 2095 (Image: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)
"Natural droughts like the 1930s Dust Bowl and the current drought in the Southwest have historically lasted maybe a decade or a little less," states Ben Cook, lead author of the study and climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, New York. "What these results are saying is we're going to get a drought similar to those events, but it is probably going to last at least 30 to 35 years."
According to the study, the severity of future droughts will be determined by humanity's approach to carbon emissions in the coming years. Cook and his team state that with the current levels of greenhouse gasses in Earth's atmosphere, the possibility of a drought lasting around 30 years sits at around 12 percent. If carbon emissions level off around 2050, this figure rises to 60 percent. In the event of man-made carbon emissions continuing to rise at the current pace, there is a harrowing 80 percent chance of a megadrought engulfing the Southwest and Central Plains from 2050 to 2099.
Droughts of this magnitude and severity would place the agricultural capabilities of the US under greater stress at a time when there is already set to be significant food shortages on a global scale, in part thanks to the effects of global warming.
The video below courtesy of NASA highlights the key points made by the study.
Source: NASA
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NASA study predicts devastating droughts during the last half of the century
Solar Activity Captured In Video By NASA
Solar Activity Captured In Video By NASA Today February 13, 2015 English News Updates Today February 13, 2015 Top Stories News Updates 2/13/2015 World and International News Today 13th ...
By: News World Today
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NASA #39;s Solar Dynamics Observatory 5 years The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)
NASA #39;s Solar Dynamics Observatory 5 years The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) music: John Harrison with the Wichita State University Chamber Players: The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) ...
By: CLASSICAL MUSIC TV
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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory 5 years & The Four Seasons (Vivaldi) - Video
NASA: #39;Megadroughts #39; Coming To America
The U.S. Southwest and Central Plains regions are likely to be scorched by a decades-long "megadrought" in the second half of this century if climate change continues unabated, scientists from...
By: Secular Talk
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NASAs Timelapse Of The Sun Is Stunning
For five long years now, NASA has been recording the sun in unprecedented detail. NASA #39;s Solar Dynamics Observatory is able to record a photo of our solar system #39;s largest star more than...
By: zurruk
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KSP NASA Series (v2) Episode: 26
Continued KSS construction, and some experimental jets get added to the toybox.
By: Galaxie Skyliner
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KSP: If NASA did it, I can do it Part 36
By: Istvan Szab
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I see that NASA has proposed sending a submarine to Saturns moon Titan to explore its seas. Maybe this is a good idea in theory, but I dont know if I trust NASA on this one:
(1) Its not widely appreciated that these are the same guys who made our own Moon into a lifeless rock by removing all the lifeforms that existed on it.
(2) Also, priorities! NASA scientists are already aware of a planet entirely populated by robots why arent we exploring that one? Public cant handle that knowledge?
The robotic planet angle has already been covered elsewhere, so let me just focus on the Moon issue for now. I dont see how this doesnt get more play unlike the standard conspiracies, this is supported by verifiable fact!
Fact: About 46 years ago, NASA detected two lifeforms on the Moon. These lifeforms were able to use sophisticated technology, as NASA could easily verify from their audio and video transmissions that we intercepted. Ive actually seen the video, and the beings seemed humanoid to me, but quite frankly, I think its hard to say for sure because of the bulky protective shielding they were wearing at all times.
Fact: What did NASA do? Stuck these lifeforms onto a rocket and brought them to Earth! NASA did the same thing five more times over the next 3.5 years and brought back ten similar lifeforms. Every time NASA has detected lifeforms on the Moon every single time theyve removed them from the Moon and shipped them to Earth. Those might have been the twelve only lifeforms to have existed on the Moon intelligent, technologically sophisticated lifeforms and now the Moon is barren! (As far as we know. Could there be more such lifeforms evading detection? Im just asking.)
Fact: NASA conducted tests on them and then released them to live among us! Theyve been living among us for decades! The first lifeform ever detected on the Moon died a couple of years ago, and a couple more have also died over this time.
Now these guys want to mess up Titan? Wheres the outrage???
Sasha Volokh lives in Atlanta with his wife and three kids, and is an associate professor at Emory Law School. He has written numerous articles and commentaries on law and economics, privatization, antitrust, prisons, constitutional law, regulation, torts, and legal history.
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Washington, Feb 17:
NASA is planning to send a nuclear-powered submarine to explore one of the methane seas located on Saturns moon Titan.
The single-tonne concept robot submarine is equipped with a seafloor camera and sampling system.
The submarine could fit into a space plane such as Boeings X-37, which was recently used for a classified Air Force mission.
The plane could land on Kraken Mare, the largest known body of liquid on Titan that consists mostly of liquid methane, or possibly drop the submarine using a parachute, ibtimes.com reported.
The vehicle would use conventional propulsors to yaw around, using a sun sensor to determine the initial azimuth to Earth and begin communication using a terrestrial radio as a more precise reference, NASA said.
NASA hopes to use the submarine to explore the chemistry of Titans seafloor and sea composition, as well as study its tides, weather, shoreline, islands and search for any type of life.
The submarine concept was showcased by NASA Glenns COMPASS Team and researchers from Applied Research Lab at the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Florida.
The concept of the submarine is still in its very early stages, but the team expects that it may be up and running by 2047.
Measurement of the trace organic components of the sea, which perhaps may exhibit pre-biotic chemical evolution, will be an important objective, and a benthic sampler (a robotic grabber to sample sediment) would acquire and analyse sediment from the seabed, the US space agency explained.
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On Dec. 5, 2014, the global space community watched as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) was launched aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center. After a two-orbit, four-hour flight that took it further from Earth than any other human-rated spacecraft since Apollo 17 in 1972, it returned safely to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near California.
In his congratulations to NASA, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance and the entire industry-government team involved with this successful first experimental test flight, Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham said, "The world is once again on a firm course of space exploration that will get us out of low Earth orbit, taking humans back to the Moon and on to Mars and beyond. As an early pathfinder for the Orion program, EFT-1 represents a gutsy effort by the entire Orion team to test early, test often and get ahead of the substantial risk involved with any new human rated system."
The flight was the first new U.S.-built human rated space launch system since 1981, and was launched to test various Orion systems, including separation events, avionics, heat shielding, parachutes and recovery operations.
The Space Foundation will honor the NASA/Industry EFT-1 Team for its historic accomplishment with the 2015 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, to be presented on April 13 during the opening ceremony of the Space Foundation's 31st Space Symposium, co-sponsored by Northrop Grumman, and held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA.
About the Morrow AwardThe award's namesake was an Academy Award-winning writer and producer, space advocate and early member of the board of directors of the Space Foundation. Designed to recognize those who have made significant contributions to public understanding of, and support for, space programs, the Morrow Award has a long list of distinguished recipients, including during the past decade:
2014 Col. Chris Hadfield (Ret.), former Canadian astronaut
2013 Bill Nye, CEO, The Planetary Society
2012 NASA Social Media Team
2011 Jay Barbree, NBC News; Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press; William Harwood, CBS News
2010 Leonard Nimoy, actor and director
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NASA/Industry EFT-1 Team Earns 2015 Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award
NASA captures memorable moments of the Sun #39;s activity in the last five years
Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/ODNsubs A captivating video has been released by NASA showing some of the most memorable moments of the Sun #39;s activity in the l...
By: ODN
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NASA captures memorable moments of the Sun's activity in the last five years - Video
NASA proposes submarine mission to Saturns moon Titan
NASA is planning to send a submarine to Saturn #39;s largest moon by 2040 to study Titan #39;s hydrocarbon oceans. Titan is the only celestial body in the solar system other than Earth that is...
By: TomoNews US
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NASA proposes submarine mission to Saturns moon Titan - Video
This Week @ NASA, February 13, 2015
NASA and its International Space Station partners announced the crews of three upcoming missions to the ISS. The crews include three NASA astronauts. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who ...
By: Cloud .Tube
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