New York, August 23 (ANI): An amateur dinosaur hunter announced last week that he had discovered a rare cretaceous footprint from a nodosaur at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center - likely left more than 110 million years ago.
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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center 'may have once been hub for dinos'
GREENBELT, Md. (WJZ) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) may be in the future business, but at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, it also has a footprint in the distant past.
Alex DeMetrick reports, the foot in question is a dinosaurs.
When NASA sent its latest rover to Mars, it carried a critical chemistry lab designed and built at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt. But the newest discovery was in their own backyard.
And all of a sudden, I saw sticking out of the ground the edges of a footprint, dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford said.
People walked right by it not knowing its the footprint of a dinosaur.
You tend to ignore it, Stanford said. Most people have different search images. They dont have dinosaur tracks on their mind.
But Stanford does. An amateur paleontologist, he was visiting the NASA campus when he spotted it.
And there it was, to much of my joy and amazement, he said.
Easier to see the outline now? Its prehistoric mud pushed up and frozen in time, quite probably by something that looked like a Nodosaur, named for the armor-like nodes or nobs on its body.
This thing was very large and heavy, Stanford said. When it steps down into the mud, it oozes a squish-up, a squeeze-up around it and thats exactly what happened here.
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Amateur Paleontologist Finds Dinosaur Footprint Near Goddard Space Flight Center
21-08-2012 14:57 A cretaceous-era nodosaur track was found by dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2012.
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NASA Finds Dinosaur Footprint - On NASA Property | Video - Video
21-08-2012 11:06 A combination of lightning, drought and human activity caused fires to scorch more than one-third of Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988. Within a year, burn scars cast a sharp outline on the 793880 acres affected by fire, distinguishing wide sections of recovering forest, meadows, grasslands and wetlands from unburned areas of the park. After more than two decades, satellite instruments can still detect these scars from space. Landsat Project Scientist Jeff Masek has been studying the recovery of the forest after the 1988 Yellowstone fires. In the video below, he talks about how Landsat satellites detect the burn scars from space and distinguish them from healthy, un-burned forest and from new growth. NASA and the US Department of the Interior through the US Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage Landsat, and the USGS preserves a 40-year archive of Landsat images with free distribution of data over the Internet. The next Landsat satellite, now known as the Landsat Data Continuty Mission (LDCM) and later to be called Landsat 8, is scheduled for a launch in 2013. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: Like our videos? Subscribe to NASA's Goddard Shorts HD podcast: Or find NASA Goddard Space Flight Center on facebook: Or find us on Twitter:
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(via LiveScience) At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, some of the most brilliant minds in the world work to build the spacecraft that humans use to explore their universe. But where space scientists now roam, dinosaurs used to call home, according to dino-hunter Ray Stanford.
Stanford has discovered the footprint of a lumbering, spiny dinosaur called a nodosaur in NASA's own backyard on the Goddard Space Flight Center campus. NASA officials aren't disclosing the precise location of the print, fearing that someone might damage or try to remove the fossilized track.
The dinner-plate-sized footprint bears the mark of four dino toes. It belongs to a nodosaur, a tank-like, armored beast studded with bony protuberances that roamed the area about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 125 million to 65 million years ago. Nodosaurs were plant-eaters, and this one appeared to be moving quickly across the Cretaceous mud, as its heel did not sink deeply into the ground. [See Images of the Ancient Dino-Print]
Stanford, an amateur paleontologist who has had several papers published, confirmed his find with Johns Hopkins University dinosaur expert David Weishampel. On Aug. 17, Stanford shared the location of the find with Goddard officials and with Washington Post reporter Brian Vastag, who made the discovery public the same day.
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The people at NASA spend most of their time thinking about the sky above them. Turns out, one of their most biggest discoveries could be sitting next to their feet. A set of dinosaur prints have been found atNASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
MSNBC reports that dino-hunterRay Stanford found the footprint on NASAs Maryland campus. The footprint belongs to a spiny dinosaur called a nodosaur and is about the size of a dinner plate.
Stanford said that the nodosaur was a tank-like beast that lived about 110 million years ago.
Stanford said:
Space scientists may walk along here, and theyre walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy-armored dinosaur walked, maybe 110 to 112-million years ago.
The amateur paleontologist believes that the nodosaur was running at the time since the heel didnt sink too far into the mud. Stanford also says that he has discovered several smaller footprints in the area.
According to Live Science, the dinosaur print discovered at NASA shouldnt be too surprising. After all, the area between Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland is often referred to as dinosaur alley.
Heres a video of Ray Stanford talking about the dinosaur prints he found at NASA.
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Dinosaur Prints Found At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center [Video]
(CNN) -
Goddard Space Flight Center scientists trying to unlock secrets of the universe have had clues to the prehistoric past resting literally beneath their feet.
Dinosaur tracker Ray Stanford this summer discovered on the center's campus the apparent footprint of a nodosaur, a plant-eater that roamed suburban Washington, D.C., about 110 million years ago.
The track, almost 14 inches wide, is near a sidewalk at the Goddard complex in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to 7,000 employees engaged in astrophysics, heliophysics and planetary science.
"It is sheer poetry," Stanford told CNN on Tuesday. "It is because of the juxtaposition that evokes so much interest."
Stanford late last week gave NASA officials a firsthand look at the print, which was hiding in plain sight all these years.
"It's something that if you knew what you were looking for you would have seen," said Alan Binstock, in charge of cultural and archaeological matters at the facility. "That's what's so amazing."
A paleontologist will do a survey to confirm the find, Binstock said, and will help determine what areas on the fenced campus may need further protection.
"I said this is not the only one," Stanford said. "There has to be many here."
Officials are staying mum on the footprint's exact location.
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At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, some of the most brilliant minds in the world work to build the spacecraft that humans use to explore their universe. But where space scientists now roam, dinosaurs used to call home, according to dino-hunter Ray Stanford.
Stanford has discovered the footprint of a lumbering, spiny dinosaur called a nodosaur in NASA's own backyard on the Goddard Space Flight Center campus. NASA officials aren't disclosing the precise location of the print, fearing that someone might damage or try to remove the fossilized track.
The dinner-plate-sized footprint bears the mark of four dino toes. It belongs to a nodosaur, a tank-like, armored beast studded with bony protuberances that roamed the area about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 125 million to 65 million years ago. Nodosaurs were plant-eaters, and this one appeared to be moving quickly across the Cretaceous mud, as its heel did not sink deeply into the ground. [ See Images of the Ancient Dino-Print ]
Stanford, an amateur paleontologist who has had several papers published, confirmed his find with Johns Hopkins University dinosaur expert David Weishampel. On Aug. 17, Stanford shared the location of the find with Goddard officials and with Washington Post reporter Brian Vastag, who made the discovery public the same day.
Stanford also found several smaller dinosaur footprints in the area, likely from meat-eating theropods. He called the location "poetic."
"Space scientists may walk along here, and they're walking exactly where this big, bungling heavy-armored dinosaur walked, maybe 110 to 112-million years ago," Stanford told Goddard officials.
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Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: For the past nine years, the Robot Hall of Fame has relied solely on expert judges to dole out its honors but this time, the people will get their say.
Maryland is no spring chicken when it comes to dinosaur fossils; in fact, the corridor between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md., is known as "Dinosaur Alley," because so many of the beasts' fossils were discovered during iron mining in the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Weishampel.
"Today, Maryland remains the only source of Early Cretaceous dinosaur fossils on the East Coast," he wrote in a 1996 article for Johns Hopkins University magazine.
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A list of things NASA has at its Goddard Space Flight Center which are awesome and which you are unlikely to have:
1. Mission control for the Hubble Space Telescope and, in fact, for all unmanned earth orbit missions.
2. This guy, wearing a bolo tie.
3. A dinosaur footprint. Dinosaur hunter Ray Stanford (pictured above, in bolo tie) discovered the creatceous footprint on Goddard Center's Maryland campus and unveiled the results to the media yesterday. The print is believed to have been made by a plant-eating Nodosaur (pictured below, not life-size), and measures 30cm across.
In its promotional release of the photos below, NASA, ever the puckish rogue, comments:
About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. On Earth, a plant-eating dinosaur left footprints in the Cretaceous mud of what would later become the grounds of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
All images courtesy of NASA, which provides more information at their website.
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ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2012) About 110 million light years away, the bright, barred spiral galaxy NGC 3259 was just forming stars in dark bands of dust and gas. Here on the part of the Earth where NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center would eventually be built, a plant-eating dinosaur sensed predators nearby and quickened its pace, leaving a deep imprint in the Cretaceous mud.
On Friday, Aug. 17, 2012, noted dinosaur hunter Ray Stanford shared the location of that footprint with Goddard's facility management and the Washington Post newspaper.
"This was a large, armored dinosaur," Stanford said. "Think of it as a four-footed tank. It was quite heavy, there's a quite a ridge or push-up here. Subsequently the sand was bound together by iron-oxide or hematite, so it gave us a nice preservation, almost like concrete."
Stanford, a "proud amateur dinosaur tracker" has had several papers published, including the discovery of a new species of nodosaur from a fossilized hatchling found near the University of Maryland in College Park. He previously confirmed the authenticity of this track with David Weishampel of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, author of the book "Dinosaurs of the East Coast."
He had material from the same Cretaceous-era sedimentary rock dated, with help from the US Geological Survey, to approximately 110- to 112-million years old, by analyzing pollen grains sealed in the stone. The Cretaceous Period ran between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago, and was the last period of the Mesozoic Era.
Goddard Facilities Manager Alan Binstock said the agency considers the footprint and its location "sensitive but unclassified."
The footprint is on federal land, so improperly removing it could potentially violate three laws: the Antiquities Act, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act and the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act.
NASA officials will next consult with the State of Maryland and paleontologists to form a plan for documenting and preserving the find, Binstock said.
Stanford also identified and presented several smaller footprints -- three-toed, flesh-eating therapods -- to Goddard officials from the same site.
He called the location of the find "poetic."
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Footprints of cretaceous dinosaur found at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
In about six years, NASA will launch into space a telescope so powerful that scientists hope to see back in time to the first light of the universe. Just how is that possible? To understand, youll need to learn about how telescopes work. And instead of cracking open a book or searching online, how about getting a lesson from scientists at Goddard Space Flight Center who work on the telescope?
Thats just what about a dozen families did recently at Goddards Family Night, a program for middle-schoolers and their families once a month during the school year and occasionally during the summer.
(Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) - Science fans, from left, Ryan Dillman, 13, Liam Clem, 13, and Rashaun Williams, 11, test the telescopes they just made at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Mary Stevenson and daughter Rebecca, 11, of Montgomery Village have been coming to the sessions at the Greenbelt facility for about a year.
Rebecca, who is home-schooled, said she was happy to see several other girls at the program.
Most of my friends arent interested in astronomy, she said, while examining two lenses. Rebecca said she likes science and is hoping for a career in ornithology (studying birds).
The next-generation telescope
At Family Night, future scientists and engineers can talk to professionals about their careers and topics such as the lunar reconnaissance orbiter or the ability of other planets to support life.
Youre meeting people who actually are doing the stuff, said 13-year-old Cameron Moye, a would-be astrophysicist. Cameron traveled an hour to Goddard with parents George and Debra from their home in Graysonville, Maryland. They rarely miss a program.
We want to foster the love and excitement for science, said Catherine Kruchten, who organizes the events.
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Middle-schoolers get hands-on learning at Goddard Space Flight Center
Published: Aug. 18, 2012 at 12:28 PM
GREENBELT, Md., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A dinosaur footprint tracker says he found a print from a nodosaur at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland that had gone unnoticed for decades.
Ray Stanford, 74, was having lunch at the Goddard cafeteria with his wife, Sheila, June 25 when he made the discovery, The Washington Post reported.
Six years earlier, Stanford found a small triangular chunk of stone stamped with a three-toed footprint, and in June he thought there might be more there.
"I drove by and said, 'There's something sticking out of the ground there,'" he said. "It's a matter of knowing what to look for."
Stanford, who has collected about 1,400 dinosaur footprints and other fossils in his career, then found an impression nearly 14 inches wide that he believes to be from a nodosaur, which were common in Maryland about 112 million years ago.
"These guys were like four-footed tanks," Stanford said of the dinosaur that grew thick, spiky armor adorned with big "nodes."
Stanford showed the print to Johns Hopkins University expert David Weishampel, author of the book "Dinosaurs of the East Coast" and a consultant on the 1993 film "Jurassic Park," who said he thinks it's the real deal.
"Ray showed it to me, and I was overwhelmed," Weishampel said. "As a scientist, I'm skeptical of things like this. But it has all the detail you want. It's got toe prints and sort of a heel print that's starting to erode away."
Goddard's architect and facility manager, Alan Binstock, said he's never heard of dinosaur footprints or fossils being found at any of NASA's 13 nationwide campuses in his 20 years working for the space agency.
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Huntsville, Ala. -- NASA's "Mighty Eagle" successfully found its target during a 32-second free flight Aug. 16 at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. This small, versatile robotic lander prototype demonstrates technologies applicable for the final descent of an autonomous controlled landing on the moon, asteroids or other celestial bodies.
The three-legged "green" lander is fueled by 90 percent pure hydrogen peroxide and receives its commands from an onboard computer that activates its onboard thrusters to carry it to a controlled landing. It is 4 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter and, when fueled, weighs 700 pounds. The test is part of a new series of free flights testing the vehicle's autonomous rendezvous and capture capabilities using an on-board camera to optically navigate to a designated target area and landing site.
Today's flight carried the vehicle to an altitude of 30 feet, where it identified an optical target painted on the ground about 21 feet away, and descended for a safe landing.
"This is huge. We met our primary objective of this test series -- getting the vehicle to seek and find its target autonomously with high precision," said Mike Hannan, a controls engineer in Marshall's Engineering Directorate. "We're not directing the vehicle from the control room. Our software is driving the vehicle to think for itself now. From here, we'll test the robustness of the software to fly higher and descend faster, expecting the lander to continue to seek and find the target."
NASA's "Mighty Eagle" will help mature the technology needed to develop a new generation of small, affordable, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of achieving scientific and exploration goals throughout the solar system.
"This test-bed is a small, low-cost project that will help NASA mature technologies needed to meet future robotic science and exploration goals," said Dr. Greg Chavers, "Mighty Eagle" engineering lead at the Marshall Center. "What we learn here will help decision-makers map out what's needed to make landing missions possible."
The team completed 25 successful test flights in 2011 and 2012, meeting all test objectives. Previous tests validated the reusable robotic lander flight design, exercised flight and design team partnerships -- incorporating affordable, innovative, off-the-shelf flight components -- and demonstrated guidance, navigation and control algorithms.
Having completed its original mission, the vehicle now serves as a functional aerial test platform for the demonstration of new algorithms and flight sensors. Additional free flights, reaching an altitude of up to 100 feet, are scheduled through the end of September.
The "Mighty Eagle" prototype lander was developed by the Marshall Center and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., for NASA Headquarter's Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate. Key partners in this project include the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, which includes the Science Applications International Corporation, Dynetics Corp. and Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., all of Huntsville.
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NASA's 'Mighty Eagle' Robotic Prototype Lander Finds Its Target
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No, its not a UFO its NASAs Mighty Eagle, a robotic prototype lander that successfully and autonomously found its target during a 32-second free flight test at Marshall Space Flight Center yesterday, August 16.
You have to admit though, Mighty Eagle does bear a resemblance to classic B-movie sci-fi spacecraft (if, at only 4 feet tall,markedly less threatening to the general populace.)
Fueled by 90% pure hydrogen peroxide, Mighty Eagle is a low-cost green spacecraft designed to operate autonomously during future space exploration missions. It uses its onboard camera and computer to determine the safest route to a pre-determined landing spot.
During the August 16 test flight, Mighty Eagle ascended to 30 feet, identified a target painted on the ground 21 feet away, flew to that position and landed safely all without being controlled directly.
This is huge. We met our primary objective of this test series getting the vehicle to seek and find its target autonomously with high precision, said Mike Hannan, controls engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center. Were not directing the vehicle from the control room. Our software is driving the vehicle to think for itself now. From here, well test the robustness of the software to fly higher and descend faster, expecting the lander to continue to seek and find the target.
In the wake of a dramatically unsuccessful free flight test of the Morpheus craft on August 9, another green lander designed by Johnson Space Center, the recent achievements by the Mighty Eagle team are encouraging.
Heres a video from a previous test flight on August 8:
Future tests planned through September will have the lander ascend up to 100 feet before landing. Read more here.
The Mighty Eagle prototype lander was developed by the Marshall Center and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., for NASAs Planetary Sciences Division, Headquarters Science Mission DirectorateImage/video: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
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The crash of NASA’s Morpheus lander was an unfortunate setback, but like any good space pioneer, the agency has more than one string to its bow - and more than one lander in the hanger. On August 8, NASA’s prototype “Mighty Eagle” autonomous lander carried out the latest in a series of flight tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Though smaller than Morpheus and ...
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Marshall Center engineers Logan Kennedy, right, and Adam Lacock check out the lander prototype, dubbed the "Mighty Eagle." (NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton)
The landscape around two historic test stands at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has changed and now features a free-flying robotic lander that will demonstrate automated rendezvous and capture technology.
This guidance, navigation and control software could aid in the capture of orbiting space debris, in-space docking with a fuel depot, docking of a robotic lander with an orbiting command module and the rendezvous of multiple unmanned stages for deep space human exploration of the solar system.
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The "Mighty Eagle" robotic prototype lander is now being tested near Marshall's historic Saturn-IC Static and F-1 test stands. (NASA/MSFC/Fred Deaton)
The test series begins with strap down tests to check out the lander's control systems, continuing with higher altitude flights and moving into hover and translation flights, ascending to a maximum height of 180 feet.
This smart, versatile, robotic lander was developed by the Marshall Center and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., for NASA's Planetary Sciences Division, Headquarters Science Mission Directorate. Key partners in this project include the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, which includes the Science Applications International Corporation, Dynetics Corp. and Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., all of Huntsville.
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New Delhi, Aug 9 (IBNS)
It was estimated, initially, in the year 2009 at Rs.12,400 crore.
Presently, the government has taken up only development of a few critical technologies required for human space flight, he said in the Lok Sabha. (IBNS)
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In 1 day and 14 hours we will launch our space capsule Tycho Deep Space. I hope you will follow this test live here on Wired.com. Stay tuned!
In space flight, only one thing is certain: no matter the result, it always looks cool!
Space flightor rocketry is a special discipline where all your long hours of work are put to a final test of complete destruction or success. This test is no different. We intend to launch the 500 kg capsule using the Launch Escape System, an 80 kN engine capable of pulling the capsule to a height of approx. 1.4 km, releasing it for drogue and main parachute deployment and finally a splashdown on water.
As the Flight Director I have the privilege of not only controlling the operation at sea but also operating all flight events. So, I may also be the cause of complete failure if I manage to mess up the flight events. The factor of human error is huge in this mission.
LES engine assembled at Space Port Nexoe. Image: Kristian von Bengtson
The flight events are as follows: - LES engine ignition (launch) - LES system separation at apogee, estimated by FIDO or flight visual - Capsule drogue deployment - Capsule drogue release and main chute deployment - Main chute release after splash down - Capsule uprighting system
Nominal flight events. Image: Kristian von Bengtson
All flight events are vital for the result of this operation. And many questions to be answered on launch day.
Trajectory
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A space flight development company with facilities in Poway has been awarded a $215.5 million NASA contract to continue development of private sector version of the space shuttle.
The Dream Chaser undergoing testing in May. Sierra Nevada Corp. photo
The Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp. was one of three companies receiving additional funding under NASAs Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Program. NASA last week awarded $1.1 billion in program contracts, including $460 million to Boeing and $440 million to SpaceX.
Sierra Nevada acquired Poway-based SpaceDev in 2008. SpaceDev was founded in 2004 and was best known for developing the hybrid rockets that powered SpaceShipOne, the first successful private sub-orbital spacecraft, in 2004.
Sierra Nevadas Space Systems division is headed by Mark Sirangelo, the former chairman and CEO of SpaceDev.
Sierra Nevada is developing the 10-passenger Dream Chaser spacecraft to shuttle personnel to and from the International Space Station. An non-powered full-size mock up of the craft is the early testing stages. The company says it hopes to being shuttle flights as early as 2016.
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BALTIMORE -
Along with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland had a lot to celebrate Sunday.
Curiosity, a rover developed by NASA, landed on the planet Mars to begin a two-year mission.
The hope is that it will help scientists learn more about the geographic make-up of the "red planet."
Dr. Jennifer Stern, a geochemist at Goddard, answered questions about Curiosity during a visit to the Maryland Science Center's space-link exhibit Monday.
Still giddy about the successful landing, Stern said: "Just seeing that landing last night was incredible, knowing everything went as planned, everything worked, seeing those first images come in."
She also pointed out that the extremely difficult landing of the rover, which involved a sky crane and the world's largest supersonic parachute, could set the stage for humans to land on Mars.
Maryland Science Center staff were excited to have someone directly involved with Curiosity on hand. Stern said she will study rocks, minerals and the atmosphere to see if life could have ever existed on Mars.
"I help with the design and testing of the experiments that are on SAM or Sample Analysis of Mars, which is one of the instruments on the Curiosity Rover," Stern said.
"It's very special because it's a new era of exploration. This space craft is going to be able to do things we've never been able to do with any other spacecraft," said science center representative Jim O'Leary. "It's an opportunity to introduce kids to discovery, how these discoveries are made, the science behind it, get them excited about science, get them excited about education," he said.
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NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center plays key role with Curiosity