Coffee in space: International Space Station astronauts can enjoy espressos with zero-gravity cup
US researchers have developed a 3D-printed zero-gravity espresso cup that will be sent to the International Space Station in February. The Zero-Gravity Espre...
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Chris Hadfield, fmr commander of Int #39;l Space Station says Star Trek world is already here
The Heat interviewed former commander of the International Space Center, Chris Hadfield on how soon we can make Star Trek a reality.
By: CCTV America
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Chris Hadfield, fmr commander of Int'l Space Station says Star Trek world is already here - Video
Dragon comes to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
A SpaceX capsule that flew to the International Space Station is on show from now until February 9th at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
By: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex
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Dragon comes to Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex - Video
Space Engineers: Exploration 15 "Hunt for the Space Unicorn"
Part 15 of Space Engineers Exploration Survival mode. We #39;re gonna find a space station even if it kills us... Space Engineers Scan Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=36473...
By: TheImperatorPat
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Space Engineers: Exploration 15 "Hunt for the Space Unicorn" - Video
ISS Real Alien UFO Caught On Video
Secret alien ufo video captured by the International Space Station. This ufo was caught on video hovering very close to the ISS. But why? Why is NASA silent on this?
By: yourjudgeandjury
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Space colonization (also called space settlement, or extraterrestrial colonization) is permanent human habitation off planet Earth.
Many arguments have been made for space colonization.[1] The two most common are survival of human civilization and the biosphere in case of a planetary-scale disaster (natural or man-made), and the vast resources in space for expansion of human society.
No space colonies have been built so far. Currently, the building of a space colony would present a set of huge challenges both technological and economic. Space settlements would have to provide for nearly all (or all) the material needs of hundreds or thousands of humans, in an environment out in space that is very hostile to human life. They would involve technologies, such as controlled ecological life support systems, that have yet to be developed in any meaningful way. They would also have to deal with the as yet unknown issue of how humans would behave and thrive in such places long-term. Because of the huge cost of sending anything from the surface of the Earth into orbit (roughly $20,000 USD per kilogram) a space colony would be a massively expensive project.
There are no plans for building one by any large-scale organization, either government or private. However, there have been many proposals, speculations, and designs for space settlements that have been made, and there are a considerable number of space colonization advocates and groups. Several famous scientists, such as Freeman Dyson, have come out in favor of space settlement.[2]
On the technological front, there is ongoing progress in making access to space cheaper, and in creating automated manufacturing and construction techniques.[3] This could in the future lead to widespread space tourism, which could be a stepping stone to space colonization.[citation needed]
The primary argument that calls for space colonization as a first-order priority is as insurance of the survival of human civilization, by developing alternative locations off Earth where humankind could continue in the event of natural and man-made disasters.
Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has argued for space colonization as a means of saving humanity, in 2001 and 2006. In 2001 he predicted that the human race would become extinct within the next thousand years, unless colonies could be established in space.[4] The more recent one in 2006 stated that mankind faces two options: Either we colonize space within the next two hundred years and build residential units on other planets or we will face the prospect of long-term extinction.[5]
In 2005, then NASA Administrator Michael Griffin identified space colonization as the ultimate goal of current spaceflight programs, saying:
Louis J. Halle, formerly of the United States Department of State, wrote in Foreign Affairs (Summer 1980) that the colonization of space will protect humanity in the event of global nuclear warfare.[7] The physicist Paul Davies also supports the view that if a planetary catastrophe threatens the survival of the human species on Earth, a self-sufficient colony could "reverse-colonize" Earth and restore human civilization. The author and journalist William E. Burrows and the biochemist Robert Shapiro proposed a private project, the Alliance to Rescue Civilization, with the goal of establishing an off-Earth "backup" of human civilization.[8]
J. Richard Gott has estimated, based on his Copernican principle, that the human race could survive for another 7.8 million years, but it isn't likely to ever colonize other planets. However, he expressed a hope to be proven wrong, because "colonizing other worlds is our best chance to hedge our bets and improve the survival prospects of our species".[9]
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Young students who watched in devastation as their science projects exploded along with an unmanned Antares rocket bound for the International Space Station in October have gotten a second chance. Astronauts finally conducted their experiments in space over the past few weeks, and the results are slated to head back to Earth for students to study on Tuesday.
"I just can't believe [astronauts] are actually touching something we designed," Regina Alsabagh, an eighth-grader at Wilkinson Middle School in Michigan, told NBC News. "It shows our hard work is not lost, even though we were so sad before."
It's long-overdue payoff for Alsabagh's team and the other 17 student groups whose experiments were selected from among nearly 1,500 proposals to the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) -- which arranges for astronauts to conduct experiments in space while students replicate them in the classroom.
The projects were originally meant to make it to space in a cargo ship attached to an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket that launched October 28. But student teams across the nation watched, horrified, as the unmanned craft exploded a few moments after it took off near the coast of Virginia.
But the next day, the teams found out SSEP had quickly arranged for the student groups to get a second chance. The catch: They had only two weeks to re-do their projects (at no cost to their districts). Those re-worked experiments finally made it to space on a SpaceX rocket that launched successfully on January 10.
Astronauts at the International Space Station finally began working on the students' projects in late January, and they're due back on Earth on Feb. 10.
It's been a long and at times heartbreaking journey for Regina Alsabagh and her teammates Farah Sabah, Maryam Kafra and Israa Alfadhli, all of whom came to Michigan after fleeing Iraq with their families.
NBC News first spoke to the teens the day after the Antares explosion, and they were devastated. The girls had spent four months collaborating in both Arabic and English to design an experiment that tests whether iodine tablets can purify water in space.
The girls -- aided by district superintendent Randy Speck and enrichment teacher Angel Abdulahad (who translated the girls' answers in an interview with NBC News last week) -- raced to re-do the project in time for the Space X launch.
"I watched the rocket fly up in the air, and my future flew with it. I wished I could have been flying right along with it," Alsabagh told NBC News.
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(Top left to bottom right) Expedition 48: Jeff Williams, NASA, Alexey Ovchinin, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), and Oleg Skripochka, Roscosmos. Expedition 48/49: Kate Rubins, NASA, Anatoly Ivanishin, Roscosmos, and Takuya Onishi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Expedition 49/50: Shane Kimbrough, NASA, Andrey Borisenko, Roscosmos, and Sergey Ryzhikov, Roscosmos. Expedition 50: Peggy Whitson, NASA, Oleg Novitskiy, Roscosmos, and Thomas Pesquet, European Space Agency.Image Credit: NASA/ESA/JAXA
NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the crew members, including NASA astronauts Kate Rubins, Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson, for three upcoming missions to the space station.
Rubins will be the first of the three with her mission beginning in May 2016, when she will join the stations Expedition 48 crew already in orbit. Selected to become an astronaut in 2009, this will be her first trip into space. Rubins was born in Farmington, Connecticut, and grew up in Napa, California. She holds a doctorate in cancer biology from Stanford.
Kimbrough, born in Killeen, Texas, and raised in Atlanta, is a retired U.S. Army colonel. He previously flew aboard space shuttle Endeavour during its STS-126 mission in 2008. Kimbrough has spent almost 16 days in space and accumulated 12 hours and 52 minutes on spacewalks.
Whitson, an Iowa native born in Mt. Ayr and raised in Beaconsfield, holds a doctorate in biochemistry from Rice University. She completed two six-month tours of duty aboard the space station, the second as its first female commander. She has spent 377 days in space between the two missions. Whitson also has performed six spacewalks, totaling 39 hours and 46 minutes.
The crew comprising Expedition 48 will be:
- Jeff Williams, NASA
- Alexey Ovchinin, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos)
- Oleg Skripochka, Roscosmos
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NASA, Space Station Partners Announce Future Mission Crew Members
If youre anything like me, you get a lot of your news online through various news and social media sources (especially Discovery News!). This is great, as it puts the mostup-to-date information in front of you instantly. But sometimes its nice to sit down and open up a real live book toexplorea topic much more intimately than you normally could online.
PHOTOS: An Awe-Inspiring Space Station Odyssey
As a member of the Orbital Perspective Release Crew,I recently had the opportunity to do precisely that with a free copy of Ron Garans book The Orbital Perspective: Lessons in Seeing the Big Picture from a Journey of 71 Million Miles.
Adecorated fighter pilot, astronaut, and entrepreneur, Ron has logged 178 days in space and over 71 million miles in orbit. He is the founder of the nonprofit social enterprise incubator Manna Energy Foundation and is also the founder of Fragile Oasis,which usesthe orbital perspective to inspire positive social and environmental action. During his time living and working in space over the course of two missions shuttle mission STS-124 and Expedition 27/28 aboard the ISS as well as participating in various humanitarian programs on Earth, Ron has developed a sense of acute awareness of the interconnectiveness of humanity, of how we really are all in this together. Unfortunately, regardless of how beautiful our planet looks from orbit theres no denying that actual living conditions in many places around the world are belied by that beauty.
ANALYSIS: Ron Garan: I Hope the Heat Shield and Parachutes Work
Having seen our world firsthand from both viewpoints, Ron has becomeaware of the paradox but doesnt believe that it has to be just the way things are he believes we have the ability to change things on a global scale but only if we work together only if we canachieve an orbital perspective.
This is not your typical space book. The Orbital Perspectivewont make you gasp in wonder at how the continents look from low-Earthorbitor dazzle you with glossy photographs of stars, aurorae, the Milky Way or massive spacecraft roaring into the sky. Thats not what its about. Yes, Ron has seen and been a part of all that, and yes, he does provide fascinating insight into the space program particularlythe collaboration between the U.S. and Russia to develop and construct the ISS. But The Orbital Perspective is much more about the effort itself than it is about Station or the Shuttle or what Earth looks like as it turns tirelessly below.
Collaboration in the literalsense of the word, laboringtogether is what Ron focuses on above all else because it is only through true collaborationthat amazing and world-changing things can be achieved.
PHOTO: Garan photographs a meteor from orbit
The Orbital Perspective is a book for anyone who works with people (which is almost everyone who is employed) and especially those who find themselves in roles that require bringing people together to solve a problem, whether within their own organization or halfway around the world. Working in space and working on Earth are surprisingly similar (besides that pesky gravity bit) if just in that both require individuals with specialized skill sets cooperatingtogether to achieve a common goal. Ron has been one of those individuals many times, and its a privilege to gain some of his personal insight.
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The Space Foundation has selected the U.S. Air Force-Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) Team to receive one of its top honors, the 2015 Space Achievement Award. The award will be presented on April 13 during the opening ceremony of the 31stth Space Symposium at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, co-sponsored by Northrop Grumman.
"The 2015 Space Achievement Award is presented to the U.S. Air Force-Boeing X-37B team, for significantly advancing the state of the art for reusable spacecraft and on-orbit operations, with the design, development, test and orbital operation of the X-37B space flight vehicle over three missions totaling 1,367 days in space," said Space Foundation Chief Executive Officer Elliot Pulham.
The Space Achievement Award recognizes individuals or organizations for breakthrough space technology or critical milestones in the evolution of space exploration and development.
Recent recipientshave included: 2014 U.S. Air Force GPS Team 2013 NOAA 2012 Junichiro Kawaguchi, Ph.D., JAXA 2011 SpaceX and Telecom sans Frontieres 2010 Hubble Space Telescope Repair Mission Team 2009 China's Shenzhou 7 Manned Space Flight Team 2008 United States Air Force 2007 Bigelow Aerospace
About the X37B ProgramThe X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is an unmanned space vehicle that is being used by the United States Air Force to explore reusable space vehicle technologies in support of long-term space objectives. Objectives of the X-37B program include space experimentation, risk reduction, and concept of operations development. Boeing's involvement in the program dates back to 1999.
About the Space Symposium The Space Symposium is the annual gathering of all sectors of the global space community, to be held April 13 - 16 at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. Visitwww.SpaceSymposium.orgfor secure online registration and complete conference information. A discount on standard industry registration is currently available if paid by March 20, 2015.
Active Military/Government Rate The Space Foundation offers reduced pricing for active military and government registrants. The rate includes admission to Symposium general sessions, exhibits, receptions, plus one ticket to each Symposium dinner and one ticket to a Symposium luncheon, such as the Space Warfighters Luncheon on April 14. This special rate does not apply to contractors who work for or with the government or military.
Co-Sponsorsa.i. solutions;Aerojet Rocketdyne;Airbus Group;Arianespace, Inc.;Artel LLC;Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.;Colorado Space Coalition;El Pomar Foundation;Inmarsat;Intelsat General Corporation;Lockheed Martin Corporation;Northrop Grumman;Orbital;Raytheon;Scitor;Space Generation Advisory Council;Spincraft;SSL;Stellar Solutions;United Launch Alliance(ULA).Aviation Week,SatnewsandSpaceNewsare media partners.
About the Space Foundation Founded in 1983, the Space Foundation is the foremost advocate for all sectors of space, and is a global, nonprofit leader in space awareness activities, educational programs and major industry events, including the annualSpace Symposium, in support of its mission "to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity." Space Foundation World Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA, has a publicDiscovery Center, includingEl Pomar Space Gallery,Northrop Grumman Science Center featuring Science On a Sphere and the Lockheed Martin Space Education Center.The Space Foundation has a field office in Houston, and conducts government affairs from its Washington, D.C., office.It annually publishesThe Space Report: The Authoritative Guide to Global Space Activity,andthrough itsSpace CertificationandSpace Technology Hall of Fame programs,recognizes space-basedinnovations that have been adapted to improve life on Earth. Visitwww.SpaceFoundation.org, follow us onFacebook,Instagram,LinkedIn,Pinterest,TwitterandYouTube,and read our e-newsletterSpace Watch.
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NASA performed the first Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) in September/October of 2010, and 666 of the known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) were identified as meeting the NHATS criteria for mission accessibility (classifying those NEAs as "NHATS-compliant"). These are asteroids in near-Earth orbits that are more dynamically accessible (requiring less time and energy to visit) than round-trip spacecraft missions to Mars.
At that time, just over 7,000 NEAs had been discovered, while today we know of over 12,000 NEAs, an increase of 70%. The percentage increase in the number of accessible asteroids in the catalog has been even greater: On January 18, 2015 - a little over four years since the NHATS assessments began - the 1332nd NHATS-compliant asteroid was identified, doubling the number of known accessible NEAs.
The sizes of these asteroids range from as small as a few meters to as large as a few kilometers. While all these asteroids are more dynamically accessible than a round-trip mission to Mars, many of them (hundreds) require less energy to visit (round-trip) than does the lunar surface, and dozens of them require less energy to visit than does a low orbit around the Moon.
NASA uses the automated NHATS system to monitor the NEA population for mission accessibility. This monitoring assists the identification of attractive destinations for future robotic and crewed missions.
Brent Barbee (GSFC) developed the process that automatically downloads orbital information on newly discovered NEAs from the JPL Small Bodies Database (SBDB) on a daily basis. He then performs trajectory calculations using the method of patched conics for the spacecraft and with full precision ephemerides for the Earth and NEOs obtained from JPL's Horizons system to determine which among them may meet the NHATS accessibility constraints.
The results of this daily analysis are then immediately uploaded to the NHATS table. A process generated by Paul Chodas (JPL) then provides, for each NHATS-compliant NEA, the details of future observation opportunities that might allow the NEA orbit to be improved with follow-up optical astrometric data.
Some of these observing opportunities would also allow the NEA's physical nature to be characterized using photometric and spectroscopic observations.
In cases where there are future close Earth approaches, radar astrometric and physical characterization observations may be possible; these opportunities are listed as well. Working closely with Brent Barbee and Paul Chodas, Alan Chamberlin (JPL) was largely responsible for creating this Accessible NEAs website.
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Number of Known Accessible Near-Earth Asteroids Doubles Since 2010
Mally Roncal #39;s Makeup Tip For Red Heads! | The Meredith Vieira Show
Red heads, are you afraid to rock a bold, red lip? Makeup artist Mally Roncal proves that a red lip compliments red hair perfectly, with a little help from o...
By: The Meredith Vieira Show
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Mally Roncal's Makeup Tip For Red Heads! | The Meredith Vieira Show - Video
NASA Plans to Search for Life on Jupiter #39;s Europa
NASA is asking for $30 million in its fiscal year 2016 budget request to plan a mission to Jupiter #39;s moon Europa which it calls one of the most likely places...
By: Wall Street Journal
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Nasa reveals far side of the Moon
Nasa has released a view of the Moon that cannot be seen from Earth. Using nearly five-years of mapping data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the space agency has created footage showing...
By: BBC News
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U.S. Releases Enhanced Shuttle Land Elevation Data
On September 23, 2014, the White House announced that the highest-resolution topographic data generated from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000 will be released globally over the next year. The announcement was made at the United Nations Heads of State Climate Summit in New York. Since then the schedule has been accelerated, and all global SRTM data, except for the Middle East region, has been released.
See the full JPL Release 2014-321.
Previously, SRTM data for regions outside the United States were sampled for public release at 3 arc-seconds, which is 1/1200th of a degree of latitude and longitude, or about 90 meters (295 feet). The new data are being released with a 1 arc-second, or about 30 meters (98 feet), sampling that reveals the full resolution of the original measurements. Data for most of Africa and its surrounding areas were released with the September 2014 announcement. The next release, in November 2014 included all of South America and North America, most of Europe, and islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The most recent release, in January 2015 includes most of continental Asia (now including India), the East Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and islands of the western Pacific.
See an index map of the newly available full-resolution data. (SRTM did not produce data for the northernmost latitudes or Antarctica.)
The new data are available for download from the USGS EROS Data Center - see Public Data Distribution for details.
See the Africa image above and its caption at the PIA04965. A fly around video of the Crater Highlands of Tanzania, using SRTM elevation data and Landsat images is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1335. id=1335.
These additional fly around videos further illustrate SRTM elevation data:
India and the Himalaya Mountains, with Landsat satellite images draped over SRTM elevation data. View the full size movie here. A smaller version can be viewed here.
Indonesia, with many volcanoes, starting at Bali, flying westward over Java, and ending at Krakatoa (Pulau Krakatau). This fly around uses only SRTM data, shaded and with colored height. View the movie here.
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Featured Terra Image
Fifteen year ago on December 18th, Terra was launched and started to see Earth for the first time. As the Flagship Earth Observing Satellite, Terra was the first satellite to look at Earth system science, collecting multiple types of data dedicated to various areas of Earth science. It joined other satellites designed to monitor specific areas of Earth science and has since been joined by others that all work in concert to collect data that leads to a better understanding of how our planet functions as a whole.
Since Terras launch, scientists are able to document relationships between Earths systems and examine their connections. Through every pass that Terra makes and every piece of data it and the other Earth Observing Satellites collect, the picture of our earth gets richer, revealing trends and connections for the entire earth, impacting all of Earths inhabitants.
The images above are the first images captured by each of Terras five instruments in 2000, shortly after Terras launch.
These images were the first attempts to tell the story of Earths systems. With every pass of Terra the story becomes richer with data.
Terras original design life was 6 years, after 15 years in orbit, Terra has been collecting valuable data about our planet for two and a half times its planned lifetime. This is due in no small part to the dedicated scientists and engineers who built, launched, and continue to maintain this valuable spacecraft that has surpassed its original mission objectives and continues to make outstanding contributions to Earth science.
Congratulations Terra and all of those who continue to support this exceptional mission. Happy fifteenth anniversary!
To learn more about some of Terra and the other EOS missions contributions, read the new NASA feature story, Earth From Space: 15 Amazing Things in 15 Years
Terra explores the connections between Earth's atmosphere, land, snow and ice, ocean, and energy balance to understand Earth's climate and climate change and to map the impact of human activity and natural disasters on communities and ecosystems.
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Now that NASA has got the hang of planetary rovers, the space agency is looking at sending submarines into space around the year 2040. At the recent 2015 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Symposium in Cocoa Beach, Florida, NASA scientists and engineers presented a study of the Titan Submarine Phase I Conceptual Design, which outlines a possible mission to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, where the unmanned submersible would explore the seas of liquid hydrocarbons at the Titanian poles.
If you had to choose the odd man out of all the moons of the Solar System, Titan would be it. Larger than the planet Mercury, it's the only moon with a proper atmosphere. In this case, one composed largely of nitrogen and methane at a pressure one and half times that of Earth's, which is remarkable when you consider that the gravity is only 0.14 g. It is, however, unpleasantly cold at a nippy minus 290 F (minus 179 C).
As a result of the Voyager and Cassini probe flybys and the Huygens probe landing, it's been established that there are three large polar seas on Titan consisting of methane and ethane in a composition similar to that of liquified natural gas. The largest of these is Kraken Mare, which was discovered by the Cassini probe n 2007. It lies in the Titanian arctic between 60 and 80 degrees north latitude, covers 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq miles), and may be 160 m (525 ft) deep, though some estimates place it beyond 300 m (1,000 ft). It even has tides due to the pull of Saturn, a complex shoreline, and evaporite deposits, so it's of particular interest to scientists.
Unfortunately, as anyone who has peered over the side of a boat can tell you, there's only so much that can be learned by looking at the surface, so NASA is considering what kind of a submarine would be able to explore the depths of Kraken Mare.
NASA's conceptual Titan submarine is based on experience gained from the building and operations of drone submersibles on Earth. Weighing in at about one tonne (2,200 lb), it uses conventional electric propulsion modified for use on Titan for a 90-day mission covering 2,000 km (1,240 miles) of Kraken Mare.
Because of its elongated shape, the sub would need to be delivered to the surface of Titan using a winged spacecraft similar to US Air Force X-37 lifting body, which could survive a hypersonic entry into Titan's atmosphere, ditch on the surface of Kraken Mare, and then sink away, leaving the submarine floating on the surface. After orientation and testing, the sub would then begin its mission. Because of the great distance from Earth, the submarine would operate with a very high level of autonomy.
At its heart, the submarine would use a 1 kW radiothermal Stirling generator. This would not only provide power to propel the craft, but it would also keep the electronics from freezing. Unfortunately, Titan is so cold that it's almost a cryogenic environment, so the waste heat from the generator would cause the liquids around it to boil and this would need be taken into account when designing the sub to minimize interference. However, NASA estimates that the boat could do about one meter per second (3.6 km/h, 2.2 mph).
For economy and simplicity, the conceptual submarine would not use an orbiter as a relay because an orbiter would need to be nuclear powered and include a propulsion system, which would greatly increase the cost and complexity of the mission. Due to the large amount of data that needs to sent to Earth, the submarine needs a large dorsal fin that includes a planar phased-array antenna. While operating, the submarine would surface for 16 hours per day for Earth communications during which it would study its surroundings using a mast camera. This is a bonus because the high latitudes mean any break in the Titanian clouds would be rewarded with spectacular views of Saturn on the horizon.
Like an earthbound submarine, the Titan sub would use ballast tanks, but their design is still open to question because methane and ethane are not water and Titan is very different from Earth. The liquid density of different ratios of methane to ethane, for example, is very variable compared to that of fresh versus salt water, so something as basic as the size of the tanks has yet to be sorted out.
Titan's gravity is low, but if Kraken Mare is as deep as some theories indicate, and taking into account the composition and temperature of the Titanian atmosphere, it could also cause trouble because at great depths the nitrogen in the ballast tanks could condense into a liquid, which could result in a sudden loss of buoyancy. For this reason, the tanks would need to use a piston to allow in and expel liquid rather than relying on air pressure as in a conventional submarine.
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NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the names of the 12 astronauts who will fly the three missions to the orbital habitat in 2016.
Most of the astronauts four from NASA, six from the Russian Federal Space Agency, one fromtheJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and one from theEuropean Space Agency will likely stay aboard the space station for six months. Every three months, a Soyuz capsule will deliver three more astronauts and return three back to Earth. The first mission of 2016, Expedition 48, launches in March.
On its website, NASA lists a total of 43 "active" astronauts eligible for flight assignment. Of those, the site lists seven who have yet to go into space.
Here is NASA's crew roster:
The crew comprising Expedition 48 will be:
The crew comprising Expedition 49 will be:
The crew comprising Expedition 50 will be:
Think you've got the right stuff? Check out NASA's guide to selection and training to get a sense of how the space agency chooses and molds its astronauts.
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NASA names crew members for 2016 space station missions (+video)
NASA and its International Space Station partners have announced the names of the 12 astronauts who will fly the three missions to the orbital habitat in 2016.
Most of the astronauts four from NASA, six from the Russian Federal Space Agency, one fromtheJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and one from theEuropean Space Agency will likely stay aboard the space station for six months. Every three months, a Soyuz capsule will deliver three more astronauts and return three back to Earth. The first mission of 2016, Expedition 48, launches in March.
On its website, NASA lists a total of 43 "active" astronauts eligible for flight assignment. Of those, the site lists seven who have yet to go into space.
Here is NASA's crew roster:
The crew comprising Expedition 48 will be:
The crew comprising Expedition 49 will be:
The crew comprising Expedition 50 will be:
Think you've got the right stuff? Check out NASA's guide to selection and training to get a sense of how the space agency chooses and molds its astronauts.
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Sometimes, it seems to be a cosmic misfortune that we only get to view the universe from a singular vantage point.
Take the example of our single natural satellite. As theMoonwaxes and wanes through its cycle of phases, we see thefamiliar face of the lunar nearside. This holds true from the day were born until the day we die. The Romans and Paleolithic man saw that same face, and until less than a century ago, it was anyones guess as to just what was on the other side.
Enter the Space Age and the possibility to finally get a peek at the universe from different perspective via our robotic ambassadors. This week, the folks over at NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio released a unique video simulation that utilized data from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to give us a view unseen from Earth. This perspective shows just what the phases of the Moon would look like from the vantage point of the lunar farside:
You can see the Moon going through the synodic 29.5 day period a familiar phases, albeit with an unfamiliar face. Note that the Sun zips by, as the lunar farside wanes towards New. And in the background, the Earth can be seen, presenting an identical phase and tracing out a lazy figure eight as it appears and disappears behind the lunar limb.
Whats with the lunar-planetary game of peek-a-boo? Well, the point of view for the video assumes that your looking at down at the lunar farside from a stationary point above the Moon. Note that the disk of the Moon stays fixed in place. The Moon actually rocks or nods back and forth and side-to-side in motions referred to as libration and nutation, and youre seeing these expressed via the motion of the Earth in the video. This assures that we actually get a peek over the lunar limb and see a foreshadowed extra bit of the lunar farside, with grand59% of the lunar surfacevisible from the Earth. Such is the wacky motion of our Moon, which gave early astronomers an excellent crash course in celestial mechanics 101.
Now, to dispel some commonly overheard lunar myths:
Myth #1: The moon doesnt rotate. Yes, its tidally locked from our perspective, meaning that it keeps one face turned Earthward. But it does turn on its axis in lockstep as it does so once every 27.3 days, known as asidereal month.
Myth #2: The Farside vs. the Darkside. (Cue Pink Floyd) We do in fact see the dark or nighttime side of the Moon just as much as the daytime side. Despite popular culture, the farside is only synonymous with the darkside of the Moon during Full phase.
Humanity got its first glimpse of the lunar farside in 1959, when the Soviet Unions Luna 3 spacecraft looked back as it flew past the Moon and beamed us the first blurry image. The Russians got there first, which is why the lunar farside now possesses names for features such as the Mare Moscoviense.
Think weve explored the Moon? Thus far, no mission crewed or otherwise has landed on the lunar farside. The Apollo missions were restricted to nearside landing sites at low latitudes with direct line of sight communication with the Earth. The same goes for the lunar poles: the Moon is still a place begging for further exploration.
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