Center of Curvature Optical Assembly, or COCOA
Serving #39;COCOA #39; to Webb The Center of Curvature Optical Assembly, or COCOA is a piece of equipment that will measure the accuracy of NASA #39;s James Webb Space Telescope #39;s primary mirror, to ensure the mirrors are perfectly shaped and will work in the frosty environment of space. This behind-the-scenes NASA video explains the purpose of COCOA and how it is used in testing the mirrors. Credit: NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight CenterFrom:okrajoeViews:0 0ratingsTime:01:47More inScience Technology

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Center of Curvature Optical Assembly, or COCOA - Video

Hurricane Sandy from Space
SANDY SCOPED -- JSC/GSFC Those watching Hurricane Sandy down here on the ground have been helped by views like these from up there in space. Here #39;s the storm as it #39;s appeared to the Expedition 33 crew aboard the ISS. And data collected by GOES satellites allow animators at the Goddard Space Flight Center to create movies like this/these of how the storm tracked through the Caribbean and up the East Coast of the US These space-based assets help forecasters and emergency personnel assess a storm #39;s strength and prepare for any eventualityFrom:okrajoeViews:0 1ratingsTime:00:34More inFilm Animation

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Hurricane Sandy from Space - Video

Virgin Galactic Space Flight Animation with White Knight 2 and Space Ship 2
wpshapes.com Courtesy Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic Space Flight Animation with White Knight 2 and Space Ship 2 demonstrating the space tourist concept. Look for this at Oshkosh this year... en.wikipedia.orgFrom:lee sueViews:0 0ratingsTime:00:07More inGaming

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Virgin Galactic Space Flight Animation with White Knight 2 and Space Ship 2 - Video

The Sun As You #39;ve Never Seen It Before!
A crucial, and often underappreciated, facet of science lies in deciding how to turn the raw numbers of data into useful, understandable information -- often through graphs and images. Such visualization techniques are needed for everything from making a map of planetary orbits based on nightly measurements of where they are in the sky to colorizing normally invisible light such as X-rays to produce "images" of the sun. More information, of course, requires more complex visualizations and occasionally such images are not just informative, but beautiful too. Such is the case with a new technique created by Nicholeen Viall, a solar scientist at NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. She creates images of the sun reminiscent of Van Gogh, with broad strokes of bright color splashed across a yellow background. But it #39;s science, not art. The color of each pixel contains a wealth of information about the 12-hour history of cooling and heating at that particular spot on the sun. That heat history holds clues to the mechanisms that drive the temperature and movements of the sun #39;s atmosphere, or corona. To look at the corona from a fresh perspective, Viall created a new kind of picture, making use of the high resolution provided by NASA #39;s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). SDO #39;s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) provides images of the sun in 10 different wavelengths, each approximately corresponding to a single temperature of material. Therefore, when one looks at the ...From:NASAexploreViews:0 0ratingsTime:02:07More inScience Technology

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The Sun As You've Never Seen It Before! - Video

Simple blender animation
Plane/space ship made with blender. Sprites for a space flight video game.From:Pablo GalavizViews:0 0ratingsTime:00:11More inScience Technology

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Simple blender animation - Video

First Circumferential Weld
Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., conduct their first circumferential weld of the "pathfinder #39; version of the adapter design for SLS and Orion. (NASA/MSFC)From:ManoharT439Views:0 8ratingsTime:01:49More inScience Technology

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First Circumferential Weld - Video

NASA | TRMM at 15: The Reign of Rain
TRMM Project Scientist Scott Braun looks back at the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and a few of the major scientific milestones the satellite has helped achieve. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA #39;s Goddard Shorts HD podcast: svs.gsfc.nasa.gov Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on facebook: http://www.facebook.com Or find us on Twitter: twitter.comFrom:NASAexplorerViews:0 45ratingsTime:03:17More inScience Technology

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NASA | TRMM at 15: The Reign of Rain - Video

Star Wars - Transformer Space Flight (FANTASTY-Soundtrack)
Star Wars - One Day on Tatooine (Domino - Animation FANTASTY-Soundtrack) First Greenscreen - Project together with my sons! Soundtrack by me FANTASTY - 7-string Gothic-, Symphonic-Progressive - Procject TOM #39;s GUITAR - CORNER Guitarstudio Thomas Schulte-Ebbert Facebook - TOM http://www.facebook.com Facebook - TOM #39;s GUITAR - CORNER http://www.facebook.com Facebook - FANTASTY http://www.facebook.comFrom:Thomas Schulte-EbbertViews:0 1ratingsTime:00:34More inFilm Animation

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Star Wars - Transformer Space Flight (FANTASTY-Soundtrack) - Video

The Reign of Rain
TRMM Project Scientist Scott Braun looks back at the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and a few of the major scientific milestones the satellite has helped achieve. Credit: NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Center Related story: http://www.nasa.govFrom:nvdktubeViews:0 0ratingsTime:03:17More inScience Technology

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The Reign of Rain - Video

MHG plays FTL - Normal Kestral Cruiser
Hope you enjoy the first part of my FTL playthrough. I love this game and hopefully you will over time as well. Also if you could leave a like that would really help me out so thank you. FTL, a space flight simulator game incorporating elements of roguelike games is developed by Subset Games. In the game, the player controls a single space craft, attempting to deliver critical information to its allies across several sectors of space while avoiding rebel forces that seek the information for themselves and other hostile entitiesFrom:Masshalogear91Views:10 0ratingsTime:26:26More inGaming

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MHG plays FTL - Normal Kestral Cruiser - Video

NASA #39;s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission
The Reign of Rain TRMM Project Scientist Scott Braun looks back at the legacy of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and a few of the major scientific milestones the satellite has helped achieve. Credit: NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight CenterFrom:okrajoeViews:0 0ratingsTime:03:17More inScience Technology

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NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission - Video

The future of America's space program is at a critical point in time; decisions are being made that will affect our ability to successfully maintain our leadership in human space flight, our national security and our capability to successfully compete with the international community in the commercial use of space.

What does the future hold for U.S. human spaceflight (HSF)? The United States had been the undisputed leader in space exploration for several decades, until recently.

With the completion of its last flight in July of 2011, the Space Shuttle has been arbitrarily retired. And today, Russia is the only partner in the International Space Station (ISS) program that is able to transport astronauts and cosmonauts to and from Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

BIG PIC: Historic Pairing: Shuttle Docked to the ISS

The Space Shuttle amassed an impressive record of achievement during its lifetime, culminating in the very successful assembly of the International Space Station (ISS). It was a very versatile spacecraft that allowed the crews to perform Extra-Vehicular Activities (EVAs), assemble structures in space, repair satellites, and perform spacecraft retrieval missions.

In addition, the Shuttle was also a superb research platform, especially when equipped with a Spacelab or Spacehab module. It could carry a cargo of 60,000 pounds (27,000 kilograms) to orbit or return a cargo of equal weight to Earth.

In its place the U.S. is developing Orion, referred to as a Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV). Orion returns the nation to flying capsules that return to Earth via parachutes using technology from the 1960s. It has no capability to carry cargo, support EVAs, do structural assembly in space, accomplish satellite repair or retrieval missions. It returns to Earth by parachute, landing in the water, as Orion is too heavy to be recovered on land.

The MPCV is supposedly being developed for exploration missions beyond Earth orbit but it provides no protection from space radiation for the crew. The first planned human flight is currently scheduled for 2021. That date is dependent upon the availability of a new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that is yet to be developed.

Currently, only funds for research, development, and risk mitigation have been awarded for SLS which, raises the question of whether or not the launch system will ever be developed at all.

PHOTOS: Inside Atlantis' Final Space Station Mission

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Time for the U.S. to Partner with China in Space?

SpaceX founder Elon Musk wants to colonize the Red Planet, flying pioneers into space for $500,000

By Rob Coppinger and SPACE.com

Image: Space.com

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of the private spaceflight company SpaceX, wants to help establish a Mars colony of up to 80,000 people by ferrying explorers to the Red Planet for perhaps $500,000 a trip.

In Musk's vision, the ambitious Mars settlement program would start with a pioneering group of fewer than 10 people, who would journey to the Red Planet aboard a huge reusable rocket powered by liquid oxygen and methane.

"AtMars, you can start a self-sustaining civilization and grow it into something really big," Musk told an audience at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Friday (Nov. 16). Musk was there to talk about his business plans, and to receive the Societys gold medal for his contribution to the commercialization of space.

Mars pioneers

Accompanying the founders of the new Mars colony would be large amounts of equipment, including machines to produce fertilizer, methane and oxygen from Mars atmospheric nitrogen and carbon dioxide and the planet's subsurface water ice.

The Red Planet pioneers would also take construction materials to build transparent domes, which when pressurized with Mars atmospheric CO2 could grow Earth crops in Martian soil. As the Mars colony became more self sufficient, the big rocket would start to transport more people and fewer supplies and equipment. [Future Visions of Human Spaceflight]

Musks architecture for this human Mars exploration effort does not employ cyclers, reusable spacecraft that would travel back and forth constantly between the Red Planet and Earth at least not at first

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Martian Colony Designed by Private Space Flight Company

27 November 2012

A team of researchers has demonstrated a new concept for a reliable nuclear reactor that could be used on space flights.

The research team recently demonstrated the first use of a heat pipe to cool a small nuclear reactor and power a Stirling engine at the Nevada National Security Sites Device Assembly Facility near Las Vegas.

The Demonstration Using Flattop Fissions (DUFF) experiment is said to have produced 24W of electricity. A team of engineers from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), NASAs Glenn Research Center and National Security Technologies LLC (NSTec) conducted the experiment.

A heat pipe is a sealed tube with an internal fluid that can transfer heat produced by a reactor with no moving parts, while a Stirling engine converts heat energy into electrical power using a pressurised gas to move a piston. According to LANL, using the two devices in tandem allowed for creation of an electric power supply that can be adapted for space applications.

Researchers configured DUFF on an existing experiment, known as Flattop, to allow for a water-based heat pipe to extract heat from uranium. Heat from the fission reaction was transferred to a pair of free-piston Stirling engines manufactured by Sunpower Inc, based in Athens, Ohio. Engineers from NASA Glenn designed and built the heat pipe and Stirling assembly, and operated the engines during the experiment. Los Alamos nuclear engineers operated the Flattop assembly under authorisation from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

DUFF is the first demonstration of a space nuclear reactor system to produce electricity in the US since 1965 and the experiment confirms basic nuclear reactor physics and heat transfer for a simple, reliable space power system.

The nuclear characteristics and thermal power level of the experiment are remarkably similar to our space reactor flight concept, said Los Alamos engineer David Poston in a statement. The biggest difference between DUFF and a possible flight system is that the Stirling input temperature would need to be hotter to attain the required efficiency and power output needed for space missions.

The heat pipe and Stirling engine used in this test are meant to represent one module that could be used in a space system, said Marc Gibson of NASA Glenn. A flight system might use several modules to produce approximately one kilowatt of electricity.

Current space missions typically use power supplies that generate about the same amount of electricity as one or two household light bulbs. The availability of more power could potentially boost the speed with which mission data is transmitted back to Earth, or increase the number of instruments that could be operated simultaneously aboard a spacecraft.

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Team works on concept for nuclear-powered space flight

To collect data on how the human body reacts and adapts to the space environment, a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut will spend a full year aboard the International Space Station.

Astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, both veterans of long-duration space flights, will spend a full year aboard the International Space Station to help scientists learn more about how the body reacts and adapts to weightlessness and other aspects of the space environment.

The research is aimed at helping scientists and engineers develop possible countermeasures for future manned missions to deep space destinations including the moon, nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.

"Congratulations to Scott and Mikhail on their selection for this important mission," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space flight, said in a statement. "The one-year increment will expand the bounds of how we live and work in space and will increase our knowledge regarding the effects of microgravity on humans as we prepare for future missions beyond low-Earth orbit."

The mission also could free up two seats aboard Russian Soyuz ferry craft for station visits by wealthy space tourists, providing needed cash to the Russian space program.

The Russians launched eight "spaceflight participants" to the station between 2001 and 2008, including one who flew twice. Seven of those were considered space tourists, paying between $20 million and $50 million per flight. The flights were arranged by Space Adventures of Vienna, Va.

Tourist flights have been on hold in recent years with all available Soyuz seats booked for professional astronauts and cosmonauts making up the station's six-member crew.

In early October, however, NASA and the Russians announced plans for an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut to spend a full year aboard the space station, freeing up two Soyuz seats in the normal crew rotation matrix.

Soprano Sarah Brightman announced on October 10 that she was booking a flight to the station through Space Adventures and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency. Russian space officials said late last week that a final decision is expected next year. If the flight is approved, Brightman likely would fly in the mid to late 2015 timeframe.

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Two space veterans named to yearlong station flight

NASA Model - CME Plotted to 10 Astro. Units
Enlil model for the March 2012 coronal mass ejection, plotted out to ten astronomical units (beyond the orbit of Saturn). The top view slices the data in the plane of the Earth #39;s orbit and projects the planetary orbits onto that. The side view is a cross-section through the Sun-Earth line. The wedge-shape of the side view is because the Enlil model only extends above and below the solar equator by 60 degrees. Duration: 12.5 seconds Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio For more breaking science videos, pictures, and articles, visit my science blog at astronasty.blogspot.com This video is public domain, with full rights to any american, funded by tax dollars. As a caveat, they require specific credit to the organization, which I have provided.From:AnotherTimelineViews:24 1ratingsTime:00:13More inScience Technology

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NASA Model - CME Plotted to 10 Astro. Units - Video

Moon libration phase 2013
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization StudioFrom:zelenyikoteykaViews:180 3ratingsTime:05:16More inScience Technology

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Moon libration phase 2013 - Video

Cyclone Monica - Wiki Article
Severe Tropical Cyclone Monica was the most intense tropical cyclone, in terms of maximum sustained winds, on record to impact Australia. The 17th storm of the 2005--06 Australian region cyclone seaso... Cyclone Monica - Wiki Article - wikiplays.org Original @ http All Information Derived from Wikipedia using Creative Commons License: en.wikipedia.org Author: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: See file upload history for details. Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: Code1390 Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: lele.meles.t21 Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( Creative Commons ASA 3.0 ) Author: NASA image by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC. Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( ...From:WikiPlaysViews:1 0ratingsTime:24:13More inEducation

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Cyclone Monica - Wiki Article - Video

Ice Thaw Climate Change
Sea ice is frozen seawater floating on the surface of the ocean. Some sea ice is permanent, persisting from year to year, and some is seasonal, melting and refreezing from season to season. Each winter existing sea ice thickens and new, thinner ice is formed. This conceptual animation shows a cut-away view of the seasonal advance and retreat of Arctic sea ice, demonstrating the current trend toward a thinning ice pack, with less of the thicker multi-year ice surviving each summer #39;s melt. Completed: 2009-10-04 Animator: Megan Willy (IRC/UMBC) (Lead) Producer: Jefferson Beck (UMBC) Series: Arctic Sea Ice 2009 NASA/Goddard Space Flight CenterFrom:NASAexploreViews:12 0ratingsTime:01:01More inFilm Animation

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Ice Thaw Climate Change - Video

Zambezi - Wiki Article
bezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1390000 square kilometres (540000 ... Zambezi - Wiki Article - wikiplays.org Original @ http All Information Derived from Wikipedia using Creative Commons License: en.wikipedia.org Author: Brian McMorrow Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( Creative Commons ASA 3.0 ) Author: Vberger Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: Rexparry_Sydney added overlay of labels/Symbols Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( Creative Commons ASA 3.0 ) Author: Image Science and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center. "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth." Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: NASA Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image URL: en.wikipedia.org ( This work is in the Public Domain. ) Author: Jesse Allen and R...From:WikiPlaysViews:0 0ratingsTime:40:57More inEducation

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Zambezi - Wiki Article - Video