Astronaut tweets awesome photo of San Antonio from International Space Station

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Photo By Screenshot via Twitter

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristofoertti said "ciao" to San Antonio from the International Space Station with an awesome photo of the Alamo City. "Hello San Antonio! Was actually surprised by so much green," Cristoforetti tweeted Sunday. "Ciao San Antonio, sorpresa da tanto verde."

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

Here's what Texas and neighboring Mexico look like from space, via high resolution photos taken by Colorado-based satellite company DigitalGlobe.

Photo By DigitalGlobe/DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

This is a satellite image of San Antonio, Texas, United States, the seventh most populated city in the United States and home of the Alamo. Collected on November 28, 2012.

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

The Tower of Americas can be seen casting its shadow in this photo taken in 2012.

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

The Alamo looks like a speck from space in this photo taken in 2012.

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Astronaut tweets awesome photo of San Antonio from International Space Station

Meet the man who takes photos of golf courses from space

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When youre cloistered 200 miles above Earth on the International Space Station, there are only so many ways to spend your downtime. Reading, exercising, tweeting William Shatner. During his four-month residency aboard the $150 billion satellite, Daniel Tani found a more creative hobby: photographing golf courses.

Ive got a fantastic picture of the Monterey Peninsula, Tani said the other day. You can make out all the holes at Cypress and at Pebble Beach.

Snapping courses from space isnt easy, and not just because of the absence of gravity or because of cloud interference far below. The space station, a bit longer than the length of a football field and with the living space of a six-bedroom house, orbits the earth at more than 17,000 miles per hour, or 280 miles per minute. That doesnt leave much set-up time.

I had about 10 seconds to find a course, frame it and photograph it, Tani says.

And photograph courses he did. Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. Pinnacle Point in South Africa. Old Head and Ballybunion in Ireland...

And is that...yes, Bandon Dunes!

The two that Im kicking myself for not looking for were Augusta and Pine Valley, Tani says.

Epic space out.

This was back in late 2006 and early 2007 when Tani was on his second of two missions on the station. (His first came during an 11-day stint in 2001.) Its not unusual for spacemen and women to wile away the hours at the stations 360-degree bay window snapping photos of sunrises, swirling typhoons or Italy by night. But Tani appears to be the first astro-shooter to focus on golf courses.

When he was about 10 or 11, Daniel started beating golf balls around a field near his suburban Chicago home. By junior high, he had graduated to a par-3 course. But even through high school and his under- and postgrad days studying mechanical engineering at M.I.T., he never took the game too seriously. Then one of his older brothers moved to Scotland. On visits, Tani played some of the ancient links and his appreciation for the game grew. On side trips to Ireland, he pegged it around Dublin, through Kerry in the west, and up to Sligo in the north. He got washed out on his first visit to Old Head, on a stunning spit of land just south of Cork, but there was still plenty of sunshine that day: He met his future wife, Jane Egan, who was then the clubs business manager.

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Elon Musk on Innovation, Space Flight, Education, Mars, Electric Cars, Life Insurance (2011) – Video

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Elon Musk on Innovation, Space Flight, Education, Mars, Electric Cars, Life Insurance (2011)
Elon Reeve Musk (/iln msk/; born June 28, 1971) is a South Africa-born, Canadian-American entrepreneur, engineer, inventor and investor. He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and chief...

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Elon Musk on Innovation, Space Flight, Education, Mars, Electric Cars, Life Insurance (2011) - Video

Media Invited to View Orion Heat Shield and Interview Leadership; Attend Pass the Torch Lecture

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Media are invited interact with NASA experts on March 17 at 1 p.m. as the Orion spacecraft heat shield is prepped for installation into NASAs Marshall Space Flight Centers 7-axis milling and machining tool. The heat shield will be loaded into the one-of-a-kind machine, where NASA experts will extract samples of the ablative material to study and measure the erosion incurred upon the crafts high-velocity re-entry during its Dec. 5, 2014 flight test.

Mark Kirasich, NASA Orion deputy program manager; Larry Price, Lockheed Martin Orion deputy program manager; and Larry Gagliano, Marshalls deputy project manager for the Orion Launch Abort System, will make brief remarks and be available for questions.

The following day, March 18 at 5:30 p.m., the Orion team will describe how the vehicle performed during the Dec. 5 flight test at a Pass the Torch Lecture at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the official visitor information center for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. The speakers will be Price and Roger Rieger, director of Human Launch Services at United Launch Alliance. The event is free and open to the public and the media.

News media interested in covering the March 17 media opportunity at Marshall should contact Jennifer Stanfield at 256-544-0034.

Media must report to the Redstone Visitor Center at Gate 9, Interstate 565 interchange at Rideout Road/Research Park Boulevard no later than noon CDT, March 17, for escort. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Journalists will need a photo identification and proof of car insurance.

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Media Invited to View Orion Heat Shield and Interview Leadership; Attend Pass the Torch Lecture

Red Storm Duo Heads from Queens to Play for Bullfrogs

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March 17, 2015 - Northwoods League (Northwoods) Green Bay Bullfrogs Green Bay, Wis.- Two of St. John's University's most reliable players, junior second baseman Ty Blankmeyer, and junior left-handed pitcher, Alex Katz, will be playing their first season for the Bullfrogs. Combined, they have experience in the Cape Cod, Hamptons, and Northwoods Leagues.

Blankmeyer is the Red Storm's primary second baseman and also plays shortstop. A native of Morristown, N.J. and graduate of Seton Hall Prep, Blankmeyer plays under the tutelage his father, St. John's 20-year Head Coach Ed Blankmeyer. Ty is an adept base-stealer and so far this spring, has not committed an error defensively. He has started all but one game in the St. John's lineup. He's familiar with the Northwoods League, having played 2014 for the Thunder Bay Border Cats. He hit .260 in 66 games and was second on the club with 14 stolen bases.

"It was the best playing experience I've ever had," said Blankmeyer of his time in Thunder Bay. "You play so much baseball and the venues, the people, the places you go are awesome."

One of St. John's most dominant left-handed arms, Alex Katz, is from New Hyde Park, N.Y. on Long Island and attended Herricks High School. Katz has provided the Red Storm with dominant work so far this season. In four appearances, Katz has a 1.69 ERA paired with a.169 OBP. He throws a fastball, changeup and slider, the latter being his strongest pitch, running inside on the hands of left-handed batters. He will be playing in the Northwoods League for the first time.

"It all worked out well. I have known Ty since my middle school days when we played in summer camps together. And we also played together in the Hamptons League two years ago," said Katz. "[The Northwoods League] prepares you for pro-ball which ultimately is my goal after college."

The Bullfrogs will open up the 2015 season at home on May 26th against the La Crosse Loggers. Group tickets, season tickets and 7-game packages are on sale now. The Bullfrogs off-season hours are Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm. For more information please visit http://www.greenbaybullfrogs.com.

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NASA awards UCI $9 million to study underlying mechanisms of 'space brain'

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Charles Limoli will lead effort to see how cosmic radiation affects astronauts' cognition

Irvine, Calif., March 17, 2015 -- With $9 million in NASA funding, UC Irvine professor of radiation oncology Charles Limoli will lead a national effort to understand the early and long-term effects of space radiation on the central nervous system.

Exposure to the dangerous radiation fields in space has been shown to impair the cognitive abilities of rodents, and this data suggests that astronauts who spend extended time in space may suffer similar consequences. Limoli's team will look into the behavioral impairments of rodents attributed to space radiation exposure and the underlying causes of these deficits, including studies to quantify the structural and functional alterations to nerve cells.

This "space brain" project is part of NASA's Human Research Program, which is funding three new NASA Specialized Centers of Research on space radiation. Investigating how such radiation affects astronauts and learning ways to mitigate those effects are critical to further human exploration of space, and NASA has set its sights on exploring an asteroid and, ultimately, Mars.

Collectively, the three NSCOR teams comprise 25 investigators from 13 institutions in eight states and the District of Columbia. Limoli's group includes researchers from UCI, Loma Linda University and the Eastern Virginia Medical School. The radiation exposure studies will take place at the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory, located at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, N.Y.

"The space environment poses unique hazards to astronauts, since a range of potential central nervous system complications can result during and after actual space travel," Limoli said. "We plan to conduct a comprehensive series of rodent studies to characterize the neurobiological mechanisms involved with radiation-induced cognitive impairment."

Results will inform efforts to minimize the effects of solar and galactic cosmic radiation on the central nervous system.

As a member of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCI, Limoli studies how cranial irradiation triggers DNA damage, oxidative stress and structural alterations to neurons - issues important to not just astronauts but also patients subjected to radiotherapy for brain cancer. In addition, he has advanced preclinical research showing that stem cell treatments can limit cognitive deficits after cranial radiotherapy or systemic chemotherapy.

Fellow UCI investigators on the NASA project are Ivan Soltesz, professor and chair of anatomy & neurobiology; Munjal Acharya, assistant professor of radiation oncology; and Janet Baulch and Vipan Kumar, project scientists in Limoli's research group.

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NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Bavi losing steam

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IMAGE:This false-colored image shows warming infrared temperature data of Tropical Cyclone Bavi's clouds on March 16 at 16:47 UTC, as seen by the AIRS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite.... view more

Credit: NASA JPL

Tropical Cyclone Bavi's convection and developing thunderstorms have been waning because of wind shear, and NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at the weakening storm.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument that flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite revealed warming infrared temperature data of Tropical Cyclone Bavi's clouds on March 16 at 16:47 UTC (10:47 a.m. EDT). At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on March 17, 2015 the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that "Recent animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery showed the system is stripped of any significant deep convection." That's as a result of moderate to strong (20 to 30 knot/23 to 34.5 mph/37 to 55.5 kph) southwesterly vertical wind shear. The imagery showed a ragged low-level circulation center and cloud top temperatures had warmed over the previous 24 hours. Warming cloud tops indicate that the cloud tops are dropping and the storms are weakening.

Bavi has weakened to a depression with maximum sustained winds near 30 knots (35 mph/55 kph). Bavi was centered near 15.6 north latitude and134.5 east longitude, about 784 nautical miles (902 miles/1,453 km) east of Manila, Philippines. Bavi was moving to the west-northwest at 8 knots (9.2 mph/14.8 kph).

Bavi is moving to the west, tracking along the southern edge of a sub-tropical ridge (elongated area) of high pressure to the north. The JTWC expects Bavi to dissipate in the next day or two.

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NASA sees Tropical Cyclone Bavi losing steam

NASA Goddard Signs Exclusive Patent License With Millennium Space Systems

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The Innovative Technology Partnerships Office (ITPO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center inGreenbelt, Maryland, announced the signing of an exclusive production license with Millennium Space Systems of El Segundo, California.

This exclusive license allows Millennium Space Systems to produce and market NASA Goddard's patented Demisable Integrated Reaction Wheel Assembly (DIRWA) for satellite platforms that can range in mass from a few hundred pounds to several thousand pounds. Made from aluminum, which has a low melting point, the demisable momentum wheels do not require controlled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, thus reducing the costs for satellite end of life mitigation scenarios.

For more information on the DIRWA, please contact the NASA Goddard Innovative Technology Partnerships Office at 301-286-5810 or emailtechtransfer@gsfc.nasa.gov

DIRWA is one of thousands of NASA technologies available for industry use. To learn more about the other technologies NASA has available for use, please visit:http://technology.nasa.gov

To learn more about the NASA Goddard Innovative Technology Partnerships Office, please visit: http://www.itpo.gsfc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/goddard

For more information on Millennium Space Systems, please visit: http://www.millennium-space.com

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Black Holes, Nanotechnology and Cyber Attacks Come to the Fore

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A preview by our editor in chief of the April issue of Scientific American

Mariette DiChristina

We're used to thinking of black holes as places where gravity is so strong not even light can escapewhere an unnoticed crossing by a hapless astronaut over an unseen and un-felt event horizon nonetheless means a point of no return. According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, no signposts would mark the spot where the chance of escape dropped to zero, writes physicist Joseph Polchinski.

But in this issue's cover story, Burning Rings of Fire, Polchinski paints a new picture, courtesy of his and others' work in a discipline that Albert Einstein found vexing: quantum mechanics. Replacing the unknowable border to an eternity of darkness is a stormy firewall of instantly lethal high-energy particles. If quantum mechanics is to be trusted, firewalls are the consequence, Polchinski notes. The controversial finding arose from scientists' attempts to resolve apparent contradictions of physics that occur in extreme environments, a challenge highlighted by Stephen Hawking, among others.

Nanotechnology can be equally invisible to the eye but promises far more benignin fact, salutaryencounters. In our special report on the Future of Medicine, we examine what benefits nanomedicine is bringing us already and how those will take shape in the future. We can look forward to improvements in cancer-fighting therapies, diagnostics, wound healing, delivery of drugs with nanomotors, and more.

A different class of unseen actors is at work in the worrying trend of cyberattacks. Software vulnerabilities have led to hacked networks, servers, personal computers and online accountswith theft of information from millions. Your own PC or corporate network can become enslaved to further the ends of cybercriminals.

How to Survive Cyberwar, by Keren Elazari, takes an unsettling look at the growing problem. Taking a military point of view, Elazari argues, will ultimately not be the most successful approachindeed, it might just make things worse. Instead she suggests thinking of it as a public health issue. Government agencies are key players, but they cannot stop the spread of [cyber]diseases on their own. Success will mean that all of us play important roles. Read on to see how we can, as cybercitizens, do the equivalent of washing our hands and getting our vaccines.

This article was originally published with the title "Dark and Stormy."

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Black Holes, Nanotechnology and Cyber Attacks Come to the Fore

Another Report Laments the Status of Carbon Nanotube Development

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In the last half-a-decade we have witnessedonce-beloved carbon nanotubes (CNTs) slowly being eclipsed by graphene as the wonder material of the nanomaterial universe.

This changing of the guard has occurred primarily within the research community, where the amount of papers being published about graphene seems to be steadily increasing. But in terms of commercial development, CNTs still have a leg up on graphene, finding increasing use in creating light but strong composites. Nonetheless, the commercial prospects for CNTs have been taking hits recently, with some producers scaling down capacity because of lack of demand.

With this as the backdrop, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), famous for its estimate back in 2001 that the market for nanotechnology will be worth $1 trillion by 2015, has released a report based on a meeting held last September. The report, called Realizing the Promise of Carbon Nanotubes: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Pathway to Commercialization,offers recommendations on the commercialization path for CNTs.

None of the recommendations should come as a surprise to those who have followed the commercial travails of CNTs over the years. While one of the recommendations of the report seemingly incongruously urges the scaling up of CNT production, it would appear the report is recommending a particular kind of increase. The aim ofthe recommendation is to support a scaled-up manufacturing that would impart the same kind of functionality seen in individual CNTs for CNT-based bulk materials.

Also, for those who measure all nanomaterial research by the degree to which it addresses environmental concerns, the report ticks that box by highlighting the need for life-cycle assessments as products based on CNTs reach commercialization.

Over the years, there has been a regular stream of research that has improved upon CNT production, whether its for electronics applications or for advanced composites.

Despite these advances, it doesnt seem that anyone has been able to translate them into real-world products. Thats why the report contains what has come to be a fixture in any review on the status of nanomaterials: a lamentation of the innovation ecosystem.

It makes perfect sense that the report offers this recommendation: Use of public-private partnerships or other collaboration vehicles to leverage resources and expertise to solve these technical challenges and accelerate commercialization.

While urging the creation of a more effective innovation infrastructure is incumbent upon any report dealing with nanotechnology, it might be time for one of these groups to not only identify the need for it but also to outline what that infrastructure would look like and actually begin buidling it. Until then, were likely to see more reports such as these, which tell those who are likely to being paying attention all the things they already know.

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Another Report Laments the Status of Carbon Nanotube Development