Rare ‘Sun That Didn’t Set’ Seen From Space Station | Time-Lapse Video – Video

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Rare #39;Sun That Didn #39;t Set #39; Seen From Space Station | Time-Lapse Video
When the ISS orbital track runs along the #39;terminator #39; (shadow line), astronauts can witness a rare unsetting Sun. Images snapped during one orbit on January 6th, 2013 were compiled to create this video. Credit: "The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. eol.jsc.nasa.gov Music: John Serrie

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Rare 'Sun That Didn't Set' Seen From Space Station | Time-Lapse Video - Video

SpaceX tests rocket for space station launch

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket completed a two-second ignition of its first stage while being held down onto its Florida launch pad on Monday, in preparation for Friday's launch to the International Space Station. This view of the test was taken by a remote video camera, which makes it difficult to see the flare of the rocket.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

SpaceX said it completed a successful test of the engines on its Falcon 9 rocket on Monday, in preparation for Friday's planned cargo launch to the International Space Station.

The California-based rocket company's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver about 1,200 pounds (550 kilograms) of supplies to the space station and bring back 2,300 pounds (1,050 kilograms) of cargo, including scientific samples and space station hardware.

Monday's static-fire test was aimed at checking the performance of the Falcon 9 first stage's nine engines before they're called upon to loft the second stage and the Dragon capsule toward orbit on Friday. The rocket was held down onto its launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for the engine firing, which came at the end of a dress rehearsal for Friday's countdown.

"SpaceX engineers ran through all countdown processes as though it were launch day," the company said in a statement issued after the 1:30 p.m. ET firing. "All nine engines fired at full power for two seconds, while the Falcon 9 was held down to the pad. SpaceX will now conduct a thorough review of all data and continue preparations for Friday's targeted launch."

In a Twitter update, SpaceX's billionaire founder, Elon Musk, reported that the static-fire test looked good: "Engines generated 433 tons of thrust, parameters nominal."

SpaceX said the first opportunity for launch will come at 10:10 a.m. ET on Friday. This is the third Dragon to be sent to the space station, and the second flight under the terms of a $1.6 billion, 12-flight cargo resupply contract with NASA.

Another company, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., has a separate $1.9 billion contract to deliver supplies to the space station but has not yet begun flying its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule. On Friday, Orbital completed a successful static-fire test of Antares' engines in preparation for the rocket's first flight, which is expected to take place later this year.

NASA's contracts with SpaceX and Orbital are meant to help fill the gap left by the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011. Russian, European and Japanese unmanned spacecraft are also used to send supplies to the space station, but Russia's Soyuz capsule is the only spacecraft currently cleared to transport astronauts to and from orbit. NASA is providing more than $1 billion to SpaceX, the Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. to support the development of new crew-capable spacecraft for low Earth orbit.

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SpaceX tests rocket for space station launch

SpaceX Primes Dragon Capsule for Space Station Mission (Photos)

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SpaceX's Dragon Spacecraft With Solar Array Fairings in Hangar

The Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, Dragon spacecraft with solar array fairings attached, stands inside a processing hangar at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The spacecraft will launch on the upcoming SpaceX CRS-2 mission. Image released Jan. 15, 2013.

Both SpaceX (left) and NASA have designed mission patches for the second Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) flight to the International Space Station.

A truck pulls the first stage of the Falcon 9 Rocket inside the SpaceX Falcon Hangar at Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This image was released Nov. 9, 2012.

Inside the SpaceX Falcon Hangar at Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is placed in a workstand for prelaunch processing. Image released Nov. 12, 2012.

A truck arrives at the processing hangar used by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. This image was released Jan. 12, 2013.

Workers inspect a solar array fairing at the processing hangar used by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. This image was released Jan. 12, 2013.

Workers prepare solar array fairings at the processing hangar used by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. This image was released Jan. 12, 2013.

Workers guide a solar array fairing into place inside the processing hangar used by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. This image was released Jan. 12, 2013.

Workers guide a solar array fairing into place inside the processing hangar used by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. This image was released Jan. 12, 2013.

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SpaceX Primes Dragon Capsule for Space Station Mission (Photos)

Fire! How the Mir Incident Changed Space Station Safety

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Jerry Linenger dons a mask during his mission on Mir in 1997. Credit: NASA

Sixteen years ago, a fire on the Russian space station Mir erupted after a cosmonaut routinely ignited a perchlorate canister that produced oxygen to supplement the space stations air supply. Jerry Linenger, an American astronaut aboard Mir at that time, wrote about the incident that occurred on February 24, 1997 in his memoir Off the Planet:

As the fire spewed with angry intensity, sparks resembling an entire box of sparklers ignited simultaneously extended a foot or so beyond the flames furthest edge. Beyond the sparks, I saw what appeared to be melting wax splattering on the bulkhead opposite the blaze. But it was not melting max. It was molten metal. The fire was so hot that it was melting metal.

Linenger famously had some trouble donning gas masks, which kept malfunctioning, but he and the rest of the crew managed to put out the blaze before it spun out of control. The cause was traced to a fault in the canister.

Mir itself was deorbited in 2001, but the fire safety lessons are still vivid in everyones mind today.

Outside view of the Mir space station. Credit: NASA

NASA fire expert David Urban told Universe Today that a fire is among the most catastrophic situations that a crew can face.

You cant go outside, youre in a very small volume, and your escape options are limited. Your survival options are limited. That space can tolerate a much smaller fire than you can tolerate in our home. Thepressure cant escape easily, and the heat stays there, and the toxic products are there as well.

Urban, who ischief of the combustion and reacting systems branch of the research and technologydirectorateof theNASA Glenn Research Center, said NASA and Russia have learned several things from the incident that they have implemented on the International Space Station today:

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Fire! How the Mir Incident Changed Space Station Safety

Europe May Work With China on Space Station

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China aims to establish a large manned space station within the next decade, officials have said, and the latest reports suggest that this outpost could host not only Chinese astronauts, but European spaceflyers as well.

A plan is afoot for China and Europe to cooperate on the venture, which might see the European Space Agency (ESA) building technologies, including a rendezvous and docking system, for the station, in exchange for opportunities for its astronauts to visit the facility.

China plans to have the space station running by 2020. Both the station and China's manned spacecraft Shenzhou could use ESA's International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM), because of a problem with the Russian system the Chinese have been using until now.

China's Shenzhou and Tiangong-1 space laboratory, a test module already in orbit, use a modified version of Russia's Androgynous Peripheral Attach System (APAS). APAS was developed for the 1975 Apollo Soyuz Test Project and is used on the International Space Station (ISS). [HowChina'sFirstSpaceStation Will Work (Infographic)]

Bouncing off

An unmanned Shenzhou spacecraft docked with Tiangong-1 for the first time in November 2011, and the docking mechanism didn't work exactly as planned, some say.

"It was originally bouncing off," Bob Chesson, an ESA human spaceflight advisor, told SPACE.com. "Essentially they have to ram this [Shenzhou] thing in and they are very worried that if you assemble a station like that, you basically will have all sorts of structure fracture mechanics problems, that type of thing."

The Shenzhou spacecraft is not heavy enough to activate the APAS docking system correctly, Chesson said, so it had to be rammed forcefully to make a connection.

Chesson traveled to Beijing with ESA's director-general Jean-Jacques Dordain and talked with the China Manned Space Engineering Office.

"Our director general has made some noises that he wants us to get involved with [the Chinese space station program]," Chesson said. "The Chinese, we had them over and showed them [the IBDM] and they were very interested because they are using the modified APAS system."

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Europe May Work With China on Space Station

SpaceX Fires Up Private Rocket Friday Launch to Space Station

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A private rocket has flexed its muscles in a key pre-launch test, firing up in preparation for lofting the next commercial cargo mission toward the International Space Station this Friday (March 1).

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocketsuccessfully executed a "static fire test" at around 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) today (Feb. 25), igniting its engines for a few seconds but staying earthbound at its launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"During the static fire test today, SpaceX engineers ran through all countdown processes as though it were launch day," company officials said in a statement. "All nine engines fired at full power for two seconds, while the Falcon 9 was held down to the pad. SpaceX will now conduct a thorough review of all data and continue preparations for Friday's targeted launch."

The Falcon 9 is slated to blast SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule toward the space station Friday on the company's second contracted cargo run for NASA. Dragon will carry about 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies and scientific experiments to the orbiting lab, then return to Earth on March 25 with 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of experiment samples and equipment, NASA officials have said. [How SpaceX's Dragon Space Capsule Works (Infographic)]

California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion deal with NASA to make 12 such resupply flights with Dragon and the Falcon 9. Dragon first reached the space station on a historic demonstration mission last May, and the company then flew its initial contracted cargo flight in October.

NASA also inked a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. for eight cargo flights using the company's Antares rocket and unmanned Cygnus capsule. Orbital plans to fly a demonstration mission to the station later this year and successfully test fired the first stage if the Antares rocket last week, officials have said.

The two contracts are part of a NASA effort to encourage American private spaceshipsto fill the cargo- and crew-carrying void left by the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in July 2011.

The space agency hopes at least one commercial vehicle is able to carry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit by 2017.

SpaceX is in the running to win a NASA crew contract with a manned version of Dragon. The other major contenders are Boeing, which is developing its own capsule called the CST-100, and Sierra Nevada Corp., which is building a space plane called Dream Chaser.

Until one or more of these manned spaceships is operational, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fly its astronauts, at a cost of about $60 million per seat.

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SpaceX Fires Up Private Rocket Friday Launch to Space Station

Second SpaceX space station resupply flight ready to go

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Feb. 25, 2013 The second International Space Station Commercial Resupply Services flight by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is set for liftoff at 10:10 a.m. EST on March 1 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Carried by a Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon spacecraft will ferry 1,268 pounds of supplies for the space station crew and for experiments being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory.

The Falcon 9 and Dragon were manufactured at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., and arrived at the Florida launch site by truck. The rocket, topped with the spacecraft, stands 157-feet tall.

The two-stage rocket uses nine engines to power the first stage, generating 855,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, rising to nearly 1,000,000 pounds of thrust as Falcon 9 climbs out of Earth's atmosphere. One engine powers the second stage to complete the climb to space. The 14.4-foot-tall Dragon spacecraft is capable of carrying more than 7,000 pounds of cargo split between pressurized and unpressurized sections.

On March 2, Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Flight Engineer Tom Marshburn of NASA are scheduled use the station's robot arm to grapple Dragon following its rendezvous with the orbiting outpost. Ground commands will be sent to attach the spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station's Harmony module where it will remain for a few weeks while astronauts unload cargo. The crew then will load more than 2,600 pounds of experiment samples and equipment for return to Earth.

Dragon is scheduled for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California on March 25.

This SpaceX flight is the second of at least 12 missions to the space station that the company will fly for NASA under the Commercial Resupply Services contract.

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Second SpaceX space station resupply flight ready to go

SpaceX Fires Up Private Rocket for Friday Launch to Space Station

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A private rocket has flexed its muscles in a key pre-launch test, firing up in preparation for lofting the next commercial cargo mission toward the International Space Station this Friday (March 1).

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocketsuccessfully executed a "static fire test" at around 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) today (Feb. 25), igniting its engines for a few seconds but staying earthbound at its launchpad at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

"During the static fire test today, SpaceX engineers ran through all countdown processes as though it were launch day," company officials said in a statement. "All nine engines fired at full power for two seconds, while the Falcon 9 was held down to the pad. SpaceX will now conduct a thorough review of all data and continue preparations for Friday's targeted launch."

The Falcon 9 is slated to blast SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule toward the space station Friday on the company's second contracted cargo run for NASA. Dragon will carry about 1,200 pounds (544 kilograms) of supplies and scientific experiments to the orbiting lab, then return to Earth on March 25 with 2,300 pounds (1,043 kg) of experiment samples and equipment, NASA officials have said. [How SpaceX's Dragon Space Capsule Works (Infographic)]

California-based SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion deal with NASA to make 12 such resupply flights with Dragon and the Falcon 9. Dragon first reached the space station on a historic demonstration mission last May, and the company then flew its initial contracted cargo flight in October.

NASA also inked a $1.9 billion deal with Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. for eight cargo flights using the company's Antares rocket and unmanned Cygnus capsule. Orbital plans to fly a demonstration mission to the station later this year and successfully test fired the first stage if the Antares rocket last week, officials have said.

The two contracts are part of a NASA effort to encourage American private spaceshipsto fill the cargo- and crew-carrying void left by the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in July 2011.

The space agency hopes at least one commercial vehicle is able to carry astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit by 2017.

SpaceX is in the running to win a NASA crew contract with a manned version of Dragon. The other major contenders are Boeing, which is developing its own capsule called the CST-100, and Sierra Nevada Corp., which is building a space plane called Dream Chaser.

Until one or more of these manned spaceships is operational, NASA will rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fly its astronauts, at a cost of about $60 million per seat.

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SpaceX Fires Up Private Rocket for Friday Launch to Space Station

SpaceX's Next Space Station Resupply Flight Gets Mission Patches

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The second of NASA's contracted cargo flights to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) is set to launch later this week, and like most spaceflights, it has its own mission patch.

In fact, it has two.

The dual designs underscore the commercial nature of the unmanned mission, which uses a rocket and a spacecraft built and operated by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, under a contract with NASA. SpaceX is headed by Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors.

Both the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company and NASA have designed their own emblems to represent the flight, which is scheduled to launch on Friday (March 1) at 10:10 a.m. EST (1510 GMT) from Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. [HowSpaceX's Capsule Works (Infographic)]

The mission will deliver 1,268 pounds (575 kilograms) of crew supplies and science equipment to the space station packed aboard SpaceX's third Dragon capsule to visit the orbiting laboratory. The gumdrop-shaped freighter will ride to orbit atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Almost a month later, on March 25, the Dragon will return to a parachute-assisted ocean splashdown, repacked with 2,668 pounds of science experiment results and no-longer-needed hardware.

The mission will be the second to launch under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, which in 2008 awarded a $1.6 billion contract to SpaceX to fly 12 Dragon cargo capsules to and from the station. The Virginia-based firm Orbital Sciences was also contracted by the space agency for cargo delivery flights using its Cygnus craft.

In addition to the Dragon mission's two patches, the flight also goes by two names: Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) and SpaceX 2 (SpX-2).

Two for one

NASA's patch for SpX-2 the mission designation that appears on the agency's emblem centers on SpaceX's Dragon as it nears a rendezvous with the space station from below. On the insignia, the sun shines brightly in the distance as it rises over Earth's horizon.

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SpaceX's Next Space Station Resupply Flight Gets Mission Patches

Dinasaur Found On Mars 2013 1080p Available – Video

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Dinasaur Found On Mars 2013 1080p Available
Very strange looking object caught by Mars Curiosity, this one looks like the fossilised remains of a martian creature, possibly a Dinosaur.of sorts. Yeah, some of you guys think in nuts, but it does look very much like bone fragments or possibly vertebrae from an unknown creature, that may have roamed the Martian surface thousands of years ago. As always you decide. Raw Image Here: mars.jpl.nasa.gov ADG Facebook: http://www.facebook.com Follow ADG on Twitter: twitter.com

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Dinasaur Found On Mars 2013 1080p Available - Video

NASA: What exploded over Russia?

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GREENBELT, Md. (SCIENCE@NASA) When the sun rose over Russias Ural Mountains on Friday, Feb. 15th, many residents of nearby Chelyabinsk already knew that a space rock was coming. Later that day, an asteroid named 2012 DA14 would pass by Earth only 17,200 miles above Indonesia. There was no danger of a collision, NASA assured the public.

Maybe thats why, when the morning sky lit up with a second sun and a shock wave shattered windows in hundreds of buildings around Chelyabinsk, only a few people picking themselves off the ground figured it out right away. This was not a crashing plane or a rocket attack.

It was a meteor strikethe most powerful since the Tunguska event of 1908, says Bill Cooke of NASAs Meteoroid Environment Office.

In a coincidence that still has NASA experts shaking their heads, a small asteroid completely unrelated to 2012 DA14 struck Earth only hours before the publicized event. The impactor flew out of the blue, literally from the direction of the sun where no telescope could see it, and took everyone by surprise.

These are rare events and it is incredible to see them happening on the same day, says Paul Chodas of NASAs near-Earth Object Program at JPL.

Researchers have since pieced together what happened. The most telling information came from a network of infrasound sensors operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). Their purpose is to monitor nuclear explosions.

Infrasound is a type of very low-frequency sound wave that only elephants and a few other animals can hear. It turns out that meteors entering Earths atmosphere cause ripples of infrasound to spread through the air of our planet. By analyzing infrasound records, it is possible to learn how long a meteor was in the air, which direction it traveled, and how much energy it unleashed.

The Russian meteors infrasound signal was was the strongest ever detected by the CTBTO network. The furthest station to record the sub-audible sound was 15,000km away in Antarctica.

Western Ontario Professor of Physics Peter Brown analyzed the data: The asteroid was about 17 meters in diameter and weighed approximately 10,000 metric tons, he reports. It struck Earths atmosphere at 40,000 mph and broke apart about 12 to 15 miles above Earths surface. The energy of the resulting explosion exceeded 470 kilotons of TNT. For comparison, the first atomic bombs produced only 15 to 20 kilotons.

Based on the trajectory of the fireball, analysts have also plotted its orbit. It came from the asteroid belt, about 2.5 times farther from the sun than Earth, says Cooke.

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GE Video Processing Technology Used by NASA to Study Hurricanes and Wildfires

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HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

GE Intelligent Platforms (GE) today announced that the companys video processing technology had been deployed on board NASAs Global Hawk as part of the agencys Hurricane Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) Mission. The Global Hawk aircraft is unique in its research capabilities because of its long range and flight duration, providing extraordinary capabilities for scientific and commercial ventures.

The rugged full motion video (FMV) compression appliance, the GE daq8580, provides visual situational awareness on the missions, which study hurricanes and wildfires. The missions are a joint partnership between NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and see the autonomous Global Hawk deployed to conduct unprecedented atmospheric research initiatives.

The Global Hawk aircraft can reach altitudes above 60,000 feet and cover more than 20,000 km in extended 30 hour missions. It has been involved in several science campaigns each with specific information gathering objectives. The scope of these missions has varied from high altitude monitoring of ozone depleting molecules, to the study of large cyclones in the arctic influencing weather patterns.

NASA selected GEs daq8580 video compression technology to enable multiple video capabilities on Global Hawk missions, said Don Sullivan, Biospheric Science Engineer, NASA. It allows us to ingest high bandwidth, high resolution video streams from the onboard sensors and compress the data by factors as large as 100:1. The reduced bandwidth video feed can then be transmitted over the communication link to the ground station for observation and analysis with negligible impact on image quality. We expect to deploy several more units over the next two years.

The daq8580 compression platform minimizes system complexity as well as the size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements, all while increasing operational reliability.

This FMV compression appliance provided three key capabilities for the NASA missions, said Rod Rice, General Manager, Military/Aerospace Products, GE Intelligent Platforms. First was very high performance with very low latency, ensuring that optimum quality captured images were processed and transmitted in the shortest possible time, and with minimal bandwidth usage. The second was the daq8580s open architecture, allowing it to be easily and cost-effectively integrated within Global Hawks other systems. Third was its support for CameraLink, an industry standard protocol which allows for the support of a broad range of high resolution cameras, giving NASA substantial flexibility.

The daq8580 is a rugged multichannel FMV compression appliance for processing, server and storage applications in harsh, constrained environments. It is designed to address the challenges of processing, transporting and storing full motion video through video encoding, and can interface with a wide variety of analog and digital I/O and process standard video formats up to 1080p30 as well as computer resolutions up to 1600x1200.

It provides exceptional compute power for video compression/decompression, video switching, format conversions, scaling, blending and many other video processing functions while enabling multichannel video compression and decompression for over 100x reduction in bandwidth without sacrificing video quality.

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GE Video Processing Technology Used by NASA to Study Hurricanes and Wildfires

NASA Eyes Declining Vegetation in the Eastern United States from 2000 to 2010

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MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA scientists report that warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation locally and regionally have altered the growth of large forest areas in the eastern United States over the past 10 years. Using NASA's Terra satellite, scientists examined the relationship between natural plant growth trends, as monitored by NASA satellite images, and variations in climate over the eastern United States from 2000 to 2010.

Monthly satellite images from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) showed declining density of the green forest cover during summer in four sub-regions, the Upper Great Lakes, southern Appalachian, mid-Atlantic, and southeastern Coastal Plain. More than 20 percent of the non-agricultural area in the four sub-regions that showed decline during the growing season, were covered by forests. Nearly 40 percent of the forested area within the mid-Atlantic sub-region alone showed a significant decline in forest canopy cover.

"We looked next at the relationships between warmer temperatures, rainfall patterns, and reduced forest greenness across these regions," said Christopher Potter, a research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "This comprehensive data set gave us the evidence to conclude that a series of relatively dry years since 2000 has been unfavorable for vigorous growth of forest cover over much of the Eastern U. S. this past decade." Potter is the first author of the paper titled "Declining Vegetation Growth Rates in the Eastern United States from 2000 to 2010," published by Natural Resources, Dec. 2012, (3), 184-190.

In the past, scientists were uncertain about what was causing the changes in the forests in the eastern U. S. Based on small-scale field site measurements since 1970, forest growth was thought to be increasing in regions where soil nutrients and water were in good supply. At the same time, there were fewer wildfires throughout the eastern U.S., which scientists believe contributed to the transformation of more open lands into closed-canopy forests with more shade-tolerant, fire-sensitive plants.

More recent studies indicate that climate change could be having many adverse and interrelated impacts on the region. The warming climate this century has caused new stresses on trees, such as insect pest outbreaks and the introduction of new pathogens. Scientists consider both climate change and disease to be dominant driving forces affecting the health of forests in this region.

NASA's technology is revealing an entirely new picture of these complex impacts. The MODIS satellite captures very broad regional patterns of change in forests, wetlands, and grasslands by continuous monitoring of the natural plant cover over extended time periods. Now, with over a decade of "baseline" data to show how trees typically go through a yearly cycle of leaves blooming, summer growth, and leaves falling, scientists are detecting subtle deviations from the average cycle to provide early warning signs of change at the resolution of a few miles for the entire country.

"The next studies at NASA Ames will research areas that appear most affected by drought and warming to map out changes in forest growth at a resolution of several acres," said Potter.

This research was conducted under the National Climate Assessment as part of the United States Global Change Research Act of 1990.

For more information about NASA Ames, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ames

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NASA Eyes Declining Vegetation in the Eastern United States from 2000 to 2010

NASA's Curiosity Rover Eats 1st Mars Rock Sample

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NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has consumed its first samples from inside a Martian rock in order to analyze the chemistry and mineralogy of the Red Planet.

The Curiosity rover deposited the powder-like samples, drilled from the interior of the Mars rock "John Klein," into two onboard laboratories so they could be studied in detail, rover mission scientists said in a statement Monday (Feb. 25).

Curiosity's first Mars rock samples were placed inside the Chemistry and Mineralogy (or CheMin) instrument, as well as the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument during a two-day operation on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 22 and 23).

"Data from the instruments have confirmed the deliveries," said Curiosity Mission Manager Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

The small Mars laboratories are built into the body of the car-size Curiosity rover. They are two of 10 instruments built to determine if Mars is now, or ever has been, capable of supporting microbial life.

Curiosity used a percussive drill mounted on its robotic arm to dig into the Mars rock John Klein on Feb. 8, revealing a surprisingly gray-colored interior of the rock. The discovery is intriguing to Mars scientists because it suggests that the rusty reddish-orange color of Mars is only skin deep.

The gray-colored rock powder "may preserve some indication of what iron was doing in these samples without the effect of some later oxidative process that would've rusted the rocks into this orange color that is sort of typical of Mars," Joel Hurowitz, sampling system scientist for Curiosity at JPL, told reporters on Wednesday (Feb. 20).

NASA's $2.5 billion Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet on Aug. 5 to begin a two-year primary mission to study its landing site, the vast Gale Crater. The rover is currently studying the John Klein rock target as a pit stop on the way to a destination called Glenelg, which is near the base of a mountain that rises up 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the center of Gale Crater.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter@tariqjmalik.Follow SPACE.com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook&Google+.

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NASA's Curiosity Rover Eats 1st Mars Rock Sample

NASA Spacecraft Discovers Particle Accelerator at Saturn

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NASA's Cassini spacecraft has spotted solar particles moving at incredible speeds near Saturn, giving scientists a rare up-close look at phenomena that occur during dramatic star explosions.

The particles flowed from the sun during a strong blast of solar wind, then plowed into Saturn's magnetic field shortly thereafter. This encounter, which Cassini observed in February 2007, created a shockwave that accelerated the particles to super-high energies, scientists said.

Similar shockwaves commonly form in the aftermath of massive star explosions called supernovas, ramping up nearby particles to nearly the speed of light. Researchers think supernova shockwaves are the primary source of cosmic rays, high-energy particles that pervade our Milky Way galaxy and slam into Earth's atmosphere continuously.

It can be tough to study distant supernovas and their shockwaves, so Cassini's observations provide a welcome proxy, scientists said.

"Cassini has essentially given us the capability of studying the nature of a supernova shock in situ in our own solar system, bridging the gap to distant high-energy astrophysical phenomena that are usually only studied remotely," Adam Masters, of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan, said in a statement.

Masters is lead author of a study reporting the Cassini findings, which was published this week in the journal Nature Physics.

The Saturn shockwave may be the most powerful ever detected at the ringed planet and suggests that certain kinds of shocks can be surprisingly efficient particle accelerators, researchers said.

The $3.2 billion Cassini mission is a joint effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Cassini launched in 1997 and arrived at the Saturn system in 2004, delivering a lander called Huygens to the planet's huge moon Titan in January 2005.

Cassini will continue studying the ringed planet and its many moons for several years to come; Cassini's mission has been extended through at least 2017.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwallor SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on FacebookandGoogle+.

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NASA Spacecraft Discovers Particle Accelerator at Saturn

MWC 2013: waterproof tissue paper using P2i nanotechnology water repellent coating – Video

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MWC 2013: waterproof tissue paper using P2i nanotechnology water repellent coating
P2i use patented nanotechnology to create an ultra-thin water repellent layer on almost any solid object. In this demo you can see treated tissue paper being dunked in water and coming out completely dry (also note the Galaxy S3 in the background that #39;s spent half an hour completely immersed in water).

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MWC 2013: waterproof tissue paper using P2i nanotechnology water repellent coating - Video

Fears over nanotechnology

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Fine line ... AWU's Paul Howes wants research. Photo: Louie Douvis

Union leader Paul Howes has likened nanotechnology to asbestos and called for more research to ease fears the growing use of fine particles could endanger manufacturing workers.

''I don't want to make the mistake that my predecessors made by not worrying about asbestos,'' the Australian Workers' Union national secretary said.

Substances called nanomaterials - measuring between one and 100 nanometres, a fraction of the width of a human hair - are used to make products such as non-scratching car wax, some types of paint, lighter sporting equipment, and self-cleaning coatings for glass and building materials.

Scientists believe nanotechnology holds the potential to improve water purification, medical treatments, solar power efficiency, engineering manufacturing processes and security screening.

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While the national science agency CSIRO says nanomaterials can be useful because they often have different properties from larger particles of the same substance, it is also researching whether some nanomaterials may harm human health and the environment. This follows a pilot study published in Nature Nanotechnology in 2008 suggesting that types of carbon nanotubes may behave like asbestos fibres and cause disease when injected into the abdominal cavity of mice.

Mr Howes said nanotechnology was present in high-performance manufacturing enterprises that used chemicals and applications that were enhanced by it. He was worried nanotechnology could be used to carry carcinogenic particles and believed it needed proper regulation and more research.

''What I fear with nanotechnology is that it's starting to spread everywhere through Australian industry I think about what my predecessors did when asbestos first became widely used in Australia and all of a sudden it appeared in every workplace and household in Australia,'' he said.

''No one knew about the dangers of it; everyone thought it was this miracle fibre that could be used for anything and it was going to transform Australia. Lo and behold, it also kills you.

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Fears over nanotechnology

Union raises fears over nanotechnology

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Fine line ... AWU's Paul Howes wants research. Photo: Louie Douvis

Union leader Paul Howes has likened nanotechnology to asbestos and called for more research to ease fears the growing use of fine particles could endanger manufacturing workers.

''I don't want to make the mistake that my predecessors made by not worrying about asbestos,'' the Australian Workers' Union national secretary said.

Substances called nanomaterials - measuring between one and 100 nanometres, a fraction of the width of a human hair - are used to make products such as non-scratching car wax, some types of paint, lighter sporting equipment, and self-cleaning coatings for glass and building materials.

Scientists believe nanotechnology holds the potential to improve water purification, medical treatments, solar power efficiency, engineering manufacturing processes and security screening.

Advertisement

While the national science agency CSIRO says nanomaterials can be useful because they often have different properties from larger particles of the same substance, it is also researching whether some nanomaterials may harm human health and the environment. This follows a pilot study published in Nature Nanotechnology in 2008 suggesting that types of carbon nanotubes may behave like asbestos fibres and cause disease when injected into the abdominal cavity of mice.

Mr Howes said nanotechnology was present in high-performance manufacturing enterprises that used chemicals and applications that were enhanced by it. He was worried nanotechnology could be used to carry carcinogenic particles and believed it needed proper regulation and more research.

''What I fear with nanotechnology is that it's starting to spread everywhere through Australian industry I think about what my predecessors did when asbestos first became widely used in Australia and all of a sudden it appeared in every workplace and household in Australia,'' he said.

''No one knew about the dangers of it; everyone thought it was this miracle fibre that could be used for anything and it was going to transform Australia. Lo and behold, it also kills you.

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Union raises fears over nanotechnology