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Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Briefing from Kennedy Space Center – Video

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Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Briefing from Kennedy Space Center
NASA Television coverage of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration #39;s (NOAA) Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) mission news briefing on Feb. 7 2015 from the Kennedy ...

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Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) Briefing from Kennedy Space Center - Video

NASA probe snaps amazing image of Ceres

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NASA's Dawn spacecraft has taken the sharpest-ever photos of Ceres, just a month before slipping into orbit around the mysterious dwarf planet.

Dawn captured thenew Ceres imagesWednesday (Feb. 4), when the probe was 90,000 miles (145,000 kilometers) from the dwarf planet, the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

On the night of March 5, Dawn will become the first spacecraft ever to orbit Ceres and the first to circle two different solar system bodies beyond Earth. (Dawn orbited the protoplanet Vesta, the asteroid belt's second-largest denizen, from July 2011 through September 2012.) [Amazing Photos of Dwarf Planet Ceres]

"It's very exciting," Dawn mission director and chief engineer Marc Rayman, who's based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said of Dawn's impending arrival atCeres. "This is a truly unique world, something that we've never seen before."

The 590-mile-wide (950 km) Ceres was discovered by Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801. It's the only dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, and contains about 30 percent of the belt's total mass. (For what it's worth,Vestaharbors about 8 percent of the asteroid belt's mass.)

Despite Ceres' proximity (relative to otherdwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris, anyway), scientists don't know much about the rocky world. But they think it contains a great deal of water, mostly in the form of ice. Indeed, Ceres may be about 30 percent water by mass, Rayman said.

Ceres could even harbor lakes or oceans of liquid water beneath its frigid surface. Furthermore, in early 2014, researchers analyzing data gathered by Europe's Herschel Space Observatory announced that they had spotted a tiny plume ofwater vapor emanating from Ceres. The detection raised the possibility that internal heat drives cryovolcanism on the dwarf planet, as it does on Saturn's moon's Enceladus. (It's also possible that the "geyser" was caused by a meteorite impact, which exposed subsurface ice that quickly sublimated into space, researchers said).

The interior of Ceres may thus possess liquid water and an energy source two key criteria required for life as we know it to exist.

Dawn is not equipped to search for signs of life. But the probe which is carrying a camera, a visible and infrared mapping spectrometer and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer will give scientists great up-close looks at Ceres' surface, which in turn could shed light on what's happening down below. [6 Most Likely Places for Alien Life in the Solar System]

For example, Dawn may see chemical signs of interactions between subsurface water, if it exists, and the surface, Rayman said.

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NASA probe snaps amazing image of Ceres

NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter's Ice Ocean Moon

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Jupiter's mysterious moon Europa, famed for its role in 2001: A Space Odyssey, may soon host an intense search for life.

The White House this week presented a 2016 U.S. budget that includes $30 million in funding for the development of an ambitious mission to explore Europa. The ice-covered moon has long been suspected of harboring a hidden, saltwater ocean that could be habitable.

Alongside the tantalizing possibility of life under Europa's ice, the fact that the second of Jupiter's satellites is similar in size to Earth's moon, has more water than our own planet, and shows signs of organic chemistry makes it one of the most exciting destinations in the entire solar system. (See "The Hunt for Life Beyond Earth," in National Geographic magazine.)

An illustration of the surface of Europa shows compounds from its hidden ocean bubbling up to the surface and spewing into space.

Photograph by NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ice Moon Ahoy

For the past 15 years NASA has been working on a design for a mission called the Europa Clipper. Launched sometime in the mid-2020s, it would travel in long, looping orbits around Jupiter and make at least 45 close flybys of Europa on a two-year mission.

Mission planners are considering including ground-penetrating radar that can look through the icy crust, high-resolution cameras that can map its craggy surface, and spectrometers that can sniff out Europa's trace atmosphere.

One fascinating surface feature NASA's mission will most likely target will be the bizarre reddish vein-like cracks that blanket the moon. The Hubble Space Telescope recently discovered geysers of water vapor erupting around Europa's south pole near these cracks. Speculation abounds that the vents may bring organic compounds up to the surface from the hidden ocean below. So NASA may fly the spacecraft straight through the suspected plumes, which may spout more than a hundred miles (161 kilometers) into space. That would allow NASA's instruments to taste and smell the blasts.

But the Clipper mission won't be alone, since the European Space Agency is also planning a run at Europa with its own mission, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), scheduled for launch in 2022. The goal will be to investigate not only Europa but also its neighboring ice-covered moons, Callisto and Ganymede.

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NASA Eyes Mission to Jupiter's Ice Ocean Moon

NASA Glenn seeks partnerships with Dayton region

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A trip this week to Dayton by NASA Glenn Research Centers director will lead to improving partnerships between the space agency and aerospace-related companies and universities in the region, experts said.

Those partnerships will help create a workforce pipeline for the agency, according to NASA Glenn director James Free.

The John H. Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is one of 10 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Centers in the U.S. The center researches, designs, develops and tests technology for aeronautics and spaceflight. NASA Glenn employs more than 3,400 civil servants and contractors, and has a $1.3 billion annual economic impact in Ohio

The science and technology center has tremendous overlap with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with which it has shared some programs over the years, Free said.

My intention is to further that partnership, Free said Friday at the University of Dayton Research Institute at 1700 S. Patterson Blvd. in Dayton.

NASA Glenn and AFRL represent Ohios two largest federal aerospace research and development facilities.

Free said there are additional collaboration opportunities with AFRL related to NASA Glenns missions in aircraft, spaceflight and sensors research.

Strengthening the connection between NASA Glenn and AFRL will make sure that Ohio stands out front when it comes to aerospace and aviation, said State Rep. Rick Perales, R-Beavercreek, co-chairman of the Ohio Aerospace and Aviation Technology Committee.

Perales said the two research centers have launched a personnel exchange, with a NASA Glenn researcher now working permanently at AFRL, and vice-versa.

On Thursday and Friday, Free visited area aerospace technology companies that included SelectTech GeoSpatial in Springfield, UES Inc. in Beavercreek and GoHypersonic Inc. in Dayton.

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NASA Glenn seeks partnerships with Dayton region

NASA Announces Sixth Round of CubeSat Space Mission Candidates

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NASA has selected 14 small satellites from 12 states to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about four inches on each side, have a volume of about one quart and weigh less than three pounds each.

The selections are part of the sixth round of the agency's CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the satellites will conduct technology demonstration, educational research or science missions. The selected spacecraft are eligible for placement on a launch manifest after final negotiations, depending on the availability of a flight opportunity. The organizations sponsoring satellites are:

Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Asteroid Origins Satellite is a science laboratory that will be the worlds first CubeSat centrifuge. It will enable a unique set of science and technology experiments to be performed on a CubeSat to answer fundamental questions of how the solar system formed and understand the surface dynamics of asteroids and comets.

California State University, Northridge, California

The mission of California State University Northridge Satellite is to test an innovative low temperature capable energy storage system in space developed by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena that will enable future missions, especially those in deep space to do more science while requiring less energy, mass and volume.

Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Maryland

The Coordinated Applied Capitol Technology University Satellite (CACTUS-1) is a technological demonstration of a cost-saving communications and commanding innovation. The payload will lower investment in communications and ground systems technology by licensing conventional internet satellite providers for low earth orbit use. The CubeSats aerogel-based Particle Capture and Measurement instrument is the first CubeSat-based orbital debris detector to be flown in low-Earth orbit.

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NASA Announces Sixth Round of CubeSat Space Mission Candidates

Tomorrow Daily – Ep. 122: Google growing human skin, Jennifer the skiing robot, NASA’s SMAP, and more – Video

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Tomorrow Daily - Ep. 122: Google growing human skin, Jennifer the skiing robot, NASA #39;s SMAP, and more
http://cnet.co/1LJHYd2 On today #39;s show, we explain why Google is growing human skin in a lab, watch an adorable robot ski in the name of science, and cheer on NASA as they start collecting...

By: CNET

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Tomorrow Daily - Ep. 122: Google growing human skin, Jennifer the skiing robot, NASA's SMAP, and more - Video


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